A Crash in Time
by ChicFlick97
Summary: Cortex is back, and is craving revenge! This time, he devises the perfect way to rid of Crash and Kate, by using time travel. But, he needs someone to collect the six Temporal Discs in order to travel through time efficiently. And, he knows who to use...
1. Prologue

**A Crash in Time: Prologue**

* * *

><p>Dr. Neo Cortex was standing by a rather peculiar machine that had a large chamber in it, and was connected to a generator with six oval pockmarks in it. This was his new lab that he had built in Antarctica due to its isolation from the world. N. Gin was standing just feet away, twiddling his thumbs in anxiety.<p>

"N. Gin, this plan cannot fail. All I need are the six discs, and I will be able to travel through time efficiently," the aging doctor said upon clearing his throat. N. Gin nodded, and placed his hands behind his back.

"Doctor, what exactly are you planning to do once that the machine is fully operable?"

Cortex sighed, and averted his red irises to the glass chamber. "I will send someone back in time, the day that I had created Crash Bandicoot, and I will order them to kill him while he is still locked within his confinement. Then, I will transmit them to when Kate Clark was born, and have them dispose of her as well."

N. Gin blinked, and inhaled. "Yes, doctor, but how are we to get the six discs?"

Cortex creased his brow, and tightened his fists. Who was he to send? He couldn't send any of his minions; knowing their liability, they wouldn't survive a few mere minutes back in time. Perhaps, he could hire professional treasure hunters, but they might not be able to withstand the dangers that lie in store.

He needed someone with luck when it came to surviving… Someone like…

"The Bandicoots."

N. Gin cocked his head slightly in confusion. "But, they surely won't believe that you are doing great things, and they won't comply."

"They might if I use the threat of force… There are plenty of them to send on this mission, and all I have to do to get them to do what I want is to threaten them." Cortex felt a smile creep on his twisted features. "Send word to N. Tropy. We will need him for temporary transportation through the timeline in order to retrieve the discs."

N. Gin pursed his lips, and made way to the door of the lab. "As you wish, Doctor." Cortex heard the metal clang of the doors swinging shut soon after, and he was alone in the room with the machine.

"The only way to get rid of you is to kill you while you were created. Crash Bandicoot, prepare to meet your doom once and for all."


	2. Snatched From Home

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>"CRASH!"<p>

Said bandicoot was busy hiding behind a large rubber tree, trying to hide from the wrath of his girlfriend. Earlier that morning, she had urged his to do something that sounded rather ridiculous to him, and he had told her that he didn't want to do it. Kate had replied that he was going to, whether he liked it or not, and Crash's last resort was…

"Quit running away, you idiot! A simple swim won't kill you!" Kate shouted from within the forest. She sounded close, much to his dismay. "All you have to do is just come with me to this waterhole I found, and get in the water with me! Easy as that!"

Crash felt his heart pounding. He didn't fancy swimming, due to his sleek, beautiful fur getting wet, and the fact that he couldn't swim made things worse. Kate ignored these facts, telling him that his fur would dry and she could teach him how to swim. "Crash! C'mon! Quit being stupid and let's get to the water hole!"

"Not a chance!" Crash yelled from his tree, just fast enough that she couldn't find out his hiding spot. Kate grimaced, and clenched her fists together, and then inhaled, devising a small plan.

"I'm wearing my black bikini…" she sang. Crash's ears perked up, and he turned his head slightly just so he could sneak a peek, and Kate grinned devilishly. "Aha! There you are!"

He cringed, and dug his claws into the tree, climbing up as fast as he could. As soon as Kate had reached the large rubber tree, Crash was already at the top. "Get down here!"

"No!" Crash said, clinging onto the small branch and looking down at the redhead below. "I'm not going!" Kate growled, and her retractable claws shot out.

"Don't make me come up there after you," she said, her ears flattening in her rising anger. Crash gulped.

"You wouldn't…"

"I would, and I will."

Kate jabbed her own sharpened nails into the tree, and began to climb up with a large evil grin on her face. Crash quickly tried to find a way to escape, but there was only one way to do so: down. And right now, his doom was certain lest he go that direction. As soon as he began to devise a way to flee, the woman was already up there and was gazing at Crash with malice.

Crash chuckled with uneasiness. "Hi there." Kate only pushed him off the branch, where he fell towards the soft jungle earth below. But, just because it was pliable, doesn't mean it wasn't painful. Crash moaned, and Kate jumped down from the tree gracefully.

"I hope you're ready," she said. He looked up at her, lying on the ground in a sort of dazed state.

"Not really."

"Well that's just too bad, buddy boy. You're going."

And Kate began to drag him to the waterhole that lay not twenty yards from their quarrel was held. She placed Crash by the small shore, and sighed. "Alright, Crash. Since you never bothered to own a pair of decent swimming trunks, it looks as if you'll have to go in with what you're wearing."

He was about to retort, when, Kate just stepped into the water and once again dragged him along. Crash felt the water embrace him, and he whimpered. "Why are you doing this to me?" he whined. Kate groaned.

"Knowing how to swim is a great advantage. I can't have you drowning on me just because to never bothered to learn."

Crash stood up in the three-feet-deep water, and rolled his eyes. "I'm not gonna drown." Kate smiled, and roughly pushed him forward. Crash yelped and was submerged fully into the water. He stood straight again, fully wet and scowling. "You have no boundaries, do you?"

"When it comes to you, no I don't." Kate threw herself into the water, and emerged to the surface after a few seconds. Her long hair was darkened due to its soaked condition. "Besides, it was a hot day today. I needed to cool off."

"And you had to force me into tagging along?" Crash griped. Kate snickered, and moved in closer to Crash, wrapping her small arms around his waist.

"Yes, because I didn't feel like going alone. I thought this could be a good way to get away from your sister and Crunch, and spend a little more time together." Crash couldn't help but to give in to her slow swaying. She was too good at this stuff for his liking, or perhaps he liked it more than he should. To put it simple, Kate was pretty seductive when it came to convincing him into doing something he didn't want to do.

"Yeah, I guess…" Crash said, placing his own arms around her neck. "We shouldn't really be doing this stuff in front of them anyway." Kate gave a small laugh and pecked his lips.

"Nope. Besides, they're busy playing a game of checkers, so there's no need to worry about them right now. It's just you… and me." She rubbed her nose to his lovingly, and Crash stroked her wet hair. They remained that way for a few minutes, until Kate's smile vanished, replaced with a stunned expression. "Crash…"

"What?" he asked. Her eyes cast downward, and his did too. Their lower bodies were dissolving into bright blue energy that was creeping up their bodies. They both let go of each other in shock, and watched as they totally disappeared, leaving no trace that they were once standing in the water.

* * *

><p>Crash's vision was swirling around in blue madness, and as soon as he was able to see, he was that he was sitting in a dark room, and Kate was gone. "What the…?" he muttered. It was then that a door opened, and who stepped in was of no surprise. Crash laughed. "Ah, Cortex and Nefarious Tropy. We meet again."<p>

The doctor nodded, and folded his hands in front of him. "I am but a sheer hologram, as of my cohort."

Crash narrowed his eyes, and he stood up, dusting himself off. "What do you want?" Cortex kept his solemn expression, and N. Tropy sneered.

"You are to retrieve three Temporal Discs for me, and you will be dispatched into several different places in the timeline," Cortex briefed.

"Like hell I will. I'm not doing anything for you," Crash scoffed. N. Tropy then sighed, and looked upon Cortex.

"Shall we begin with the consequences?"

"We shall."

Crash was about to question, when a static hologram of Kate, bound in ropes, appeared. He inhaled sharply. "Kate!"

"Crash! Don't listen to them!" she pleaded, and her image faded away, leaving Cortex and N. Tropy smiling in wicked triumph. Crash compressed his fists and a low growl filled his throat.

"Let her go."

Cortex chuckled. "Only if you retrieve the three discs for me. Then, your precious Kate will live."

Crash didn't want to comply with anything underhanded that Cortex was doing, but he had to for Kate's sake. He crossed his arms, and heaved a sigh.

"Alright. I'll collect these… discs. But if you do anything to hurt Kate, I swear I'll rip you apart."

"Don't worry bandicoot. She will be fine," Tropy spoke in an irritated tone. "Now, I will teleport you to where you must first go. But, you only have twenty-four hours to find each disc, and if you do not have the disc by the last hour, you will be stuck in that time period for the rest of your days, understand?"

Crash nodded, grimacing every second. Tropy continued. "Your first location is Ancient Egypt. You must find the yellow disc. When you find it, I will bring you back to this location."

"All right, I get it. Now, how about you just do with the little time travel gadget so I can get on with my life?" Crash said. Tropy frowned, and began to mess with the dials on his left arm's time device.

"Good luck," he mused, and Crash found himself teleporting again, but this time to another century.

'_I know I'm going to regret this,' _he thought.

* * *

><p>Kate moaned. She always hated teleporting, and wasn't going to begin liking it anytime soon. She found herself sitting in a white room, and a familiar figure standing meager feet away. But, she didn't recognize the taller person standing next to him. "Cortex…" she growled.<p>

"Yes, my dear. I have a job for you."

Kate glowered at the doctor. "And what makes you think I'll do anything you tell me to do?"

Cortex laughed. "I am in position to kill Crash right now. As we speak, he is being held hostage in my base in a heavily guarded cell. If you do not comply, I will have orders to execute him. Your choice."

She was instantly filled with concern, debating over whether or not she should believe it. What if he really was in a cell? If she didn't do what he said, Crash could be killed. But, what would happen if she did what he said? Kate sighed, and bowed her head. "Okay, what do you want?"

Cortex and the man beside him smiled. "Glad you could see it my way. Now, Nefarious Tropy here will transport you to another point in time to gather three Temporal Discs. You will have twenty-four hours to collect each one, and you will give me each one. If you fail, Crash Bandicoot dies."

Kate bared her canines, and refrained from attacking the hologram. "Fine."

Cortex gestured toward Tropy, and the later began to mess with the dials on his arm once again. "Alright, girl. You are looking for the orange disc in the Medieval Times."

She saw herself teleporting again, and she watched in apprehension. _'This should be fun…'_

* * *

><p><strong>Ancient Egypt, 1407 B.C.<strong>

Crash groaned. Time travel was a migraine. He felt the sun blazing down on him unmercifully, and the sound of construction and the foreign tongue of human workers filled his ears. Crash hid behind a pile of gargantuan bricks that they had to use in order to build their project. He kicked the sand with his damp shoe, and tried to find a good time to leave the area unnoticed.

"Okay, now how do I get past all these Egyptians?" he mumbled. He began to concoct a plan, and saw a wooden wheelbarrow just big enough to sit in. He grinned, and his eye caught the already built pyramid that lay at least a mile away. He figured he could get past all the workers, and that pyramid looked suspicious and probably held plenty of jewels, and just possibly the disc.

Crash rubbed his hands together, and grabbed a small rock. He really didn't want to have to do this, but he had to cause a distraction. He inhaled, and locked his aim on a random worker. He chucked the stone with all his might and the rock sailed through the air, and made stark contact on the short tanned man's head. The construction worker fell to the ground, overwhelmed with the injury. A few fellow workers stopped by to see what had happened, when the overseer began to bark commands and investigate the injured worker himself.

Crash took this as the time to react, and he began to push the cart along the hardened sand, and as he built enough speed, he leapt into it as soon as he approached a steep hill. He shielded his face as the sand was kicked up due to the acceleration of the wheelbarrow. He caught a glimpse of the nearing pyramid, and saw how close it had become.

But, the speed of the makeshift chariot could not last, as it began to slow as the ground began to level. After a minute of reducing speed, the wheelbarrow finally stopped moving. Crash just sat there, still a considerable distance from the structure. He muttered a profanity and hopped out of the cart.

"So much for not having to walk," he grumbled. He kicked the sand in aggravation, and made his way to the pyramid.

* * *

><p><strong>England, 705 A.D.<strong>

Kate crept through the shadows of the castle, making sure to stay hidden as she tried to find a way inside the huge fortress. The village outside was ridden with humans, and if they spotted her, her life would be finishing up in the guillotine for sure. Kate shuddered at the thought, and continued her way into the shadows.

First thing to do was to get past the guards. Kate figured that it would be considerably easy. She took in a deep breath, and prepared to face them. Maybe, her animalistic features would prove to be good… Well, time to test her theory.

The redheaded bandicoot woman casually walked up the armored guards that stood at the gate. "Do either of you know where I can find King Arthur?" she joked. The guards looked down at her, gasped, and fled, leaving the gate unfortified. Kate chuckled. "Well, that was fairly simple. Crash's recklessness is rubbing off on me."

She sauntered inside with a cheery grin, and decided that at this time, it was best to return to the secrecy of the shadows. As a man and woman walked by carrying a barrel of fish, Kate hid behind a cart full of hay, and traveled amongst the darkness of the shade.


	3. The Adventure Begins

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Crash wrung out his hands, and was at the entrance to the mighty structure. He was just about to make his way inside, when he caught sight of a few hieroglyphics on the door hinge above. He narrowed his eyes. "'Warning: May contain the Temporal Disc thing. In need of stealing.'" he 'translated.' "Well, I'll heed the caution."<p>

Crash grinned cockily as he took a step forward, and his foot sank in a tile. An arrow darted out of the dark tomb, buzzing past just millimeters away from his neck. Crash's smile perished as his eyes widened in sudden astonishment, and he gulped. "Of course, this pyramid's armed with booby traps."

He began to walk inside the darkness of the tomb, watching his step and keeping an eye out for anything hazardous. As soon as he was a good ten feet away from the entrance, torches lit all throughout the corridor without the need of ignition. Crash had to admit that it was rather creepy, but he considered it useful and grabbed a torch from the wall.

"Not bad for a haunted Egyptian tomb," he mumbled. He sighed, and began to saunter through the pyramid.

After some time of decent walking, Crash gave a yawn, and stretched his arms out. Just as he did, though, his ankle made contact with a wire and caused him to stumble. But, that wasn't the worst of it. The floor altered itself into a slope leading downwards, and Crash yelled as he began to slide down the slippery slant, and tried to claw himself to a halt. But, that only succeeded in burning his fingers. He cringed and muttered a curse as he shook his hands in pain.

Then, the most dreadful noise filled his ears: running water. Now, Crash decided to panic. The deafening roar of the underground river made him anxious. He tried to twist his moving body around to try and slow himself down, which unfortunately he failed in doing so. The bandicoot saw that the end was approaching a drop into a river full of sharp rocks and rapids.

Feeling hopeless, he felt the velocity of the slope push him over the edge, and he was drifting through the air, moments away from plunging into what doom lay beneath him. Then, Crash caught sight of a large root dangling down from the dirt ceiling of the underground river, and he twirled his body just enough that he could grasp onto it.

Crash reached out to the root, and caught it right as he was about to descend to the water twenty feet below. He was hanging by the root, panting slightly. He began to chuckle, and it soon became a maniacal laugh. "You failed, Nature! Crash Bandicoot lives to see another day!"

But, just as his self-glory and insanity was just reaching its height, Crash felt a jerk. He stopped laughing, and looked up. The root began giving way, and was snapping with the extra weight of a single bandicoot. Crash scowled. "Shit."

The root tore from the dirt, and he plummeted toward the water below. Well, this certainly wasn't any good, due to his swimming incapability and the sharp rocks that lie ahead. He burst for the surface, taking in as much air as he possibly could. He thrashed about in the torrent feebly, and felt a sudden jolt in his back from a boulder jutting out. The water was now playing ping-pong with him, and Crash could only helplessly be shoved into countless rocks while he began to scream words that shouldn't be written down.

Crash was nearly certain that this was it. This was how he was going to die. His lungs were sore, as of the rest of his body, and he was exhausted. He felt a jab into his side, doubtlessly another rock. _'Well, Crash, this is it. This is the end.'_

Then, he remembered that Cortex had Kate, and if he didn't bring back the three discs, the madman may kill her if he didn't return. Crash growled. This was not how he was going down. With a renewed ambition to survive, he turned around to face an upcoming stone, and readied himself. He leapt out of the water, and onto the jagged boulder with a grunt. He tried to scale its slippery yet rough surface, wincing as he hefted his own body up the rock.

As soon as he reached a more level point, he sprawled out and started to cough out all the water he had inhaled. Exhausted, he took in deep breaths and tried to regain himself. Crash smiled tiredly, and saw a small piece of "shore" that lead to the mouth of a cave on the other side of the river. He struggled to stand, and retained his balance. He saw a path of boulders leading to it, and knew what he had to do now.

Without wasting another second, he leapt from his rock to the one before it, with enough grace that he wouldn't slip and fall back into the water. Just as Crash reached the very last rock, he saw that the shore was a considerable distance from where he stood, too far to jump. Crash chuckled irately. "Well, crap."

He certainly didn't want to go back into the torrent of water that would drown him, and this gap was preventing that. "Now, how am I going to—that's it!" he spoke with excitement. He took in a deep breath, and bounded for the small piece of land. He began to hover over the water and fall towards it, but he began to spin around in a fierce tornado in midair. His hovering body lowered down to the small bank, and his feet hit the ground, ceasing his destructive form.

Crash was panting slightly, and he looked back at the river. He snickered. "Two points for the orange bandicoot!" He heaved a breath, and turned his attention to the dark entrance of the cave. A lit torch lay beside it, and Crash took it from the wall. "Now, how about we go and find that disc thing?"

* * *

><p>Kate crept through the bustling fort with much ease. People seemed too busy to notice behind their own work. She bypassed the blacksmith, and sneaked through his stable to get to a dark path that led directly to the castle. Everything was going according to plan, until a female grey horse turned its head to Kate.<p>

She stopped, and smiled up at the horse as innocently as possible. "Hi there," she whispered. The horse flipped its head in response, and Kate grinned. "I'm just passing through."

The horse gave a faint neigh, and turned back to the opening as if she was never there. Kate shrugged, and tip-toed her way through the stable. Then, she came across the second horse, a black male. As soon as it turned in her direction, the mighty beast gave a loud shriek and reared its front legs up. She felt her heart leap into her throat as the blacksmith dashed it holding a scalding hot piece of iron with the handlers.

Kate stopped breathing and remained still in the shadows. Thankfully, the blacksmith didn't see her, and halfheartedly headed back into his shop. Kate let out a sigh of relief, and glared at the black horse. "Thanks a lot!" she whispered angrily. The horse seemed to snigger in response, which Kate did not take in fondly. But, she saw the large hole leading to the trail into the castle, and relieved the resentful thoughts from her mind.

She got down onto her knees, and crawled through the small hole. She looked at the thin trail, and grimaced. It was pretty dank and disgusting, and she could see a few rats eating something. "Gross." The bandicoot stood up, and brushed the straw from her knees. The path led straight into the castle, supposedly the kitchen.

Kate avoided the pests that undoubtedly held the plague, and stealthily moved into to the huge building. It was an almighty fort that towered high, casting a large shadow over the land around it. She sighed, and paced quickly through the trail.

Cortex had been generous for once, and gave her a new set of clothing, one that was not only a bikini. Her new attire consisted of a black tank, and a pair of black skin-tight leather pants. The black commando boots topped off the outfit tailored for stealth. Kate was quite pleased with it, because she loved the look it gave her. She would have to keep these clothes.

Soon enough, she was in front of the small wooden door on the side of the castle. When Kate looked up, she saw that she had misjudged the size of the humongous living quarters. It was so high up compared to her, she had to make her neck at a ninety-degree angle to see most of it. Her mind snapping back into reality, Kate glanced back down at the door and cracked her knuckles.

"Alright, let's do this."

She pulled the wood door up, and crawled through the opening. Luckily, she wasn't too large of a woman, because she wouldn't have fit. She could barely crawl through the way it is. Kate made a face, feeling the moist vent dampen her fur slightly. Soon, she saw a hole that illuminated the vent somewhat, signaling that the kitchen was near. She crawled faster, and before she knew it, she was peering into the bustling kitchen of the castle.

"The King has ordered that there be roasted pig heads at his table!" shouted a rather burly woman, appearing to be a cook. The lower-ranked chefs nodded, and began to find the proper ingredients for the recipe. Kate watched in horror as they brought a pig into the kitchen, and slaughtered it on the other side of the area.

"That's sick…" she muttered to herself. But then, if the kitchen was busy, how was she to get out of the grotesque vent?

"All cooks to the main hall! A pig is loose!" hollered a voice. The chefs instantly stopped what they were doing and bolted out of the kitchen. Kate raised her brow.

"Well that was convenient."

She pushed the weak grate out of the way, and struggled out of the small space. She was certain that she didn't have enough time to spend there like an idiot staring at a beheaded chicken, and peeked her way through the kitchen door. All was clear, except for the chefs pursuing the squealing piglet that slipped out of their grasps with ease.

Kate snickered, and hurried out of the kitchen. She rapidly paced down the hall, and looked back at the silly goose chase behind her. She felt a laugh come out of her mouth, but without turning around to face what lay ahead of her, she rammed into something hard and fell on the ground with a grunt.

"What the hell…?" she cursed. She looked up, and saw two ominous guards looking over her with looks of shock and rage. "Oh, darn it."


	4. The Temporal Discs

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Neo Cortex was sitting at a conference table with a few of his cohorts and minions, a very serious look on his face. The members attending this meeting were Dingodile, N. Tropy, Nina Cortex, surprisingly Nega Bandicoot, N. Gin, Tiny Tiger, and the doctor himself.<p>

"Alright," he began, clearing his throat. "There is an assignment for each of you."

Dingodile snorted. "And what would that be, oh Great One?" A snicker erupted out of both Nega and Nina's mouth, but the deadly look Cortex gave them ceased their laughter.

"I will not tolerate foolishness at this time. Now, we will first discuss how we will dispose of the Bandicoot who keeps thwarting my plans."

Tiny began to scratch his head in confusion. "But Nega no mess up plans. He on our side." Cortex gave an irritated sigh, and rubbed his temples. Nega smirked and slightly elbowed the very large Tasmanian tiger who sat next to him.

"He means Crash."

"Oh… Tiny hate Crash!" He thrust his fists on the metal table, earning a jump from Nega and the few dents he'd left behind.

"Crikey, this guy is a killing machine! How the hell did he fail in killing that mongrel?" Nega asked.

"Like I had said before, Crash Bandicoot is far too lucky when it comes to survival," Cortex said. "But I have devised a great plan to destroy him once and for all."

"Out with it! I'm getting anxious!" Dingodile spat, gripping his flamethrower hungrily. Cortex nodded, and placed his gloved hands on the table.

"Alright, when that infernal marsupial and that wretched girl of his are finished with collecting the six Temporal Discs, I will send three of you to go back in time and dispose of them."

At this time, Nina furrowed her brow. "Why can't we just send N. Tropy back in time to do it? It'd spare us the trouble."

"Because, my dear niece, I am afraid it is more difficult than that. His powers are only temporary, and in a matter of days, time would revert back to itself again. But, with the Temporal Discs gathered and put into the machine, altering history is permanent. That is why it is essential to send the two back in time to gather them," Cortex explained. Nina nodded, and folded her arms.

"Well, why do you need me? Why can't I go home yet?" Nega growled. "You have plenty of minions here. Send them!"

Cortex glared at the crimson-furred bandicoot. "You and I both know that Crash is not someone who is easy to kill. You are just as powerful as him, and just as agile. If I send you back in time to where he is younger, you will doubtlessly be greater than he."

Nega sneered. Poor Cortex probably didn't even know he was complimenting him. "Alright, so how old will he be when we go back?"

"The day I created him, he was sixteen. No more, no less. Now, we must decide who I will dispatch to annihilate him."

Nega sighed. "I take it I'm not getting paid this time. I'll go."

"I'll do it. I'd like to have some roasted bandicoot," Dingodile stated, receiving a startled glance from Nega. "I don't eat tough meat, buddy."

"Tiny will go," Tiny said, snarling happily.

"Acceptable. Now, two will have to go back and destroy Kate Clark," Cortex said. Nina smiled.

"I'd be more than happy to. N. Gin's coming with me, though." The Cyborg man stared at the teenaged girl in fear, and Nina chuckled. "Don't worry, as long as you do what I say, there won't be a problem."

"And I will stay behind, sir, to run the procedure of the Discs. They won't work too well without my power," N. Tropy said. Cortex nodded, and looked around at the group.

"Then it is settled. When the two are finished with collecting the Temporal Discs, we will act quickly, understood?" Cortex asked. They all concurred, and Nega gave a hearty laugh.

"It's about time I could even the score with that rat."

* * *

><p>Crash whimpered. What lay before him in the cave was a fork in the corridor, both exactly the same, leading into more darkness. "Now, how am I supposed to choose which path to go?" He tapped his foot pensively, and uttered a profane sigh. He could be there all day, wondering which way to go, but unfortunately he only had twenty-four hours.<p>

"Well… How about I go right? Seems fair enough." Crash headed in that determined direction with a jolly gait, and started to hum a tune.

After a few minutes of walking, he saw the end on the trail, and stopped dead in his tracks. It was yet another split in the tunnel. "What the? Oh, come on!" he grumbled. "Left it is."

Crash trotted down the left branch with less enthusiasm than before, kicking a few small stones in his frustration. After another few minutes of walking, he came to the end, which unfortunately was the same old slit in the path. Crash clenched his fists and muttered something under his breath. After a few more tries, he wound up with the same thing every time.

"What kind of messed up loophole is this?" he muttered bitterly. "Screw it, I'm going back." With that, he turned around on his heels, and began heading in the direction he had come.

As he was taking a stride, he noticed that the path grow increasingly brighter without the light of the torch. He stumbled upon a wooden door, concealing the glow. "Well, what do ya know? This tomb really is haunted after all." Crash grabbed and turned the handle, unsheathing the brilliant light that blinded him for a minute. After readjusting his eyesight, Crash gasped.

The chamber was filled with beautiful jewels that were doubtlessly worth tons of money. Gold was everywhere, and gems were lying along the sides on the room. Although, in the middle of chamber an Egyptian pharaoh sarcophagus was lying on the floor. Crash grinned when he saw a yellow oval right in the heart of it. He quickly dashed over, and looked at the object.

It was a stone oval of bright yellow color that was shining without end. In the disc was a print of a shaded hourglass. This surely was the Temporal Disc. "Well, I'll be." Crash smirked, and gripped the object with care. It pulled loose with ease, and Crash laughed. "Well, now I can go home!" He began to make his way to the door cheerfully, when a noise tickled his ears. It sounded like… Sliding rock…

Crash turned around, and saw that the tomb was open. "Odd," he mumbled. He dismissed the thoughts absently as he twisted back to the door. But, blocking it only inches away from him was a foul-smelling mummy, wrapped from head to toe in gauze and a pharaoh hat on its head. Crash shouted a curse in shock, and staggered backwards.

"You…" groaned the ancient ruler, "…have taken the Temporal Disc… You must be punished…"

Crash gave a long whistle that echoed in the stone room of jewels. Mummies, huh? "Ah, why can't ol' King Tut share?" he grinned, chuckling at his own joke. The living corpse did not seem amused; rather his red eyes began to glow menacingly. The putrid stench of death lingered in Crash's nose as he began to near the empty casket. Well, this guy hasn't taken a decent shower in hundreds of years, obviously.

"You will _die_…" the deceased pharaoh said in the raspiest voice Crash had ever heard. The mummy extended his arms and extended his hands to walls to their left and right, and the jewels that bordered them fell down a hatch. Then horrifically, the walls began closing in on the two. Crash's heart leapt in his throat as he realized that he was going to be crushed to death.

The mummy chuckled, and turned to dust, leaving only that as proof he was once there. Crash wasn't about to investigate, for he needed to find a way out of there ASAP. He began to see the walls closing in at a rapid pace. He certainly didn't want to become an orange smear on them. In a panic, he began to scope the floor as fast as possible for a trap door, or maybe even a button. _SOMETHING_ to stop these walls from crushing him!

He noticed the empty casket the mummy had been laying in once before, and grimaced. He knew what he had to do, and just maybe it would withstand the walls' coming. Without wasting another second, Crash ran as fast as he could to it and leapt inside, closing the heavy lid soon after.

He gagged. The fetid reek was appalling, and burnt the inside of his nose with its horrid smell. Crash heard a loud clang on the sides of the casket, and also noticed that the sides were beginning to creak. That couldn't be good. Right now, he'd rather be anywhere but here.

The inside of the casket began to shine a brilliant yellow, and Crash furrowed his brow in confusion. He looked at the disc he held firmly in his hand, and saw it was illuminating the coffin. "What the…?" And with a flash of bright light, he began to feel the tomb starting to tilt. He tried to push the lid off, and was partially shocked as broad daylight filled the small sarcophagus. He shoved it off totally with a grunt, and looked at his surroundings.

Crash inhaled sharply. He could see dunes and pyramids, but the most astonishing fact was that he—and the casket—was perched on top of a pyramid! "Whoa…" he muttered. The view was captivating, but he knew he had to get down from the pyramid. As he began to climb clumsily out of the casket, he felt t leaning of the edge, and he pursed his lip. "That can't be good."

Then he began to slide down the slope of the pyramid like a toboggan, crawling back into it fully. Crash grasped the edges of the coffin and was yelling at the top of his lungs. It brought back the memory of the rollercoaster, only this didn't have any sharp turns and was really jarring with the steps of the mighty structure. The dust kicked up from the slide trailed behind him as he saw the end approaching. _'Well, be prepared for a rather rough landing.'_

He hit the sand with a large impact, and flew out of the casket, skidding across the sand. Crash moaned, and sat up. His attention turned to the Temporal Disc that had slipped from his grasp, and was presently protruding out of the sand. "I hate amusement park rides, even the ones back in time," he mumbled. He stumbled to a stand, and ripped the object from the earth.

The object was no longer shining with brilliance. "You know, you have caused me quite a bit of trouble," Crash said to it. He didn't expect a reply, and continued to speak. "But thanks for saving my life. Now, how about you and I blow this joint?"

* * *

><p>Kate gulped in fear. Standing behind her was a pair of large guards that would not let her back through the way she came in. And to top it off, she was faced with hundreds of hazards that could kill her with ease. There were trapdoors, blades that swished through the hall, a drop or two that lead into lava, and all sorts of dangers.<p>

"So, I have to go through there?" she asked the guards. She received no answer, as they kept their blank gaze straight ahead. She bit her lip, and took another look down the treacherous path. Kate inched her way through slowly, glancing around for any cautions that she might heed. But, nothing posed as a danger yet, so she soon turned it into a casual walk.

Kate approached the trapdoors, and studied them. To test their liability, she put a foot on the right door, and it remained intact. "Hm, seems safe enough." She briskly walked over the two doors. Unfortunately, her luck didn't last, and she yelped as she felt them give way. On instinct, she grasped the edge of the hole that had been created, and stared down the dark chasm.

"Dear God," she mumbled fearfully. Kate hefted herself up over the ledge, and rolled onto her back. "Note to self: Don't trust trapdoors." She sighed, and got to her feet. Certainly, this wasn't going to be easy, but she was sure that she would live through the experience.

Suddenly, a large razor blade zoomed just inches away from her nose, and Kate stopped breathing in shock. She dashed forward out of the way of the massive slicing path, and gasped. "Okay, I might. I might live through the experience." Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she progressed through the precarious hall.

Kate stood in front of a wooden bridge that was built over a pit of lava, and rubbed her hands together. Taking a few vigilant steps, the bridge seemed sturdy enough. She grew rather cocky and she quickly made her way to the other side of the bridge. "Ha! Take that, you terrifying pit of magma!"

A column of lava shot up, burning the bridge in half as it collapsed into its depths. Kate's sneer disappeared, and she inhaled a shaky breath. No time to worry about the danger behind her, she had to get to the Temporal Disc. When she had successfully made it through the dangerous hall, she came upon a door.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" she said with a small grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. She couldn't make out the words the door had on it, but one thing was noticeable. There was a long sword hanging on its surface, and Kate examined it. "Perhaps I'll need it." She took the weapon from the door, and heaved a determined sigh.

She locked her hand around the knob, and pushed it open. Kate was astonished at how brightly the room was lit, and smiled as she saw what lay in the centre of the chamber. An orange oval was perched on a podium, and was casting an orange glow on the surrounding walls.

"There you are!" she giggled, and dragged the sword along with her to where it rested. She wrapped her fingers on its smooth surface, and plucked it from the pedestal. It shone brilliantly, and Kate was mesmerized by its glossy surface. "Well aren't you just the prettiest thing I've ever seen?"

It felt like it was empowering her somehow, but Kate ignored it. "Let's scoot." She turned back to the door that had once been open, but she found it shut. Strange. She walked up to it, and tried to open it, but to no avail. "What the?"

Then, she heard a grunt from behind, and a blast of hot smoke blew her hair in her face. She furrowed her brow, and turned around, and gasped. A colossal dragon was hovering over Kate, smoke pouring from its nostrils and its wings outstretched. It had dark purple scales and a yellow underbelly, and did not seem happy.

Kate pursed her lips. "Hi there."

The mighty beast gave a roar, and prepared to roast her alive. Kate screamed and dodged out of the way of the fiery death, lunging hard on her stomach. She groaned, and used her sword to help her back up. The dragon hissed, and shook its body. "Damn it, who keeps a dragon as a pet?" she cursed, and scrambled to the other side of the chamber, and nervously held out her sword as if it would provide as protection.

The beast glared at her with hard yellow eyes. Kate swallowed. "How about you be less… Ferocious… and I'll just be on my way with this here Disc thingy?" The dragon didn't seem to comply, as its wings spread further apart and its jaw creaked open. Its mouth alit with bright blue fire, and Kate grasped the oval object in her hand. Well, this was the end; Kate Clark burnt to a crisp.

The flames rushed at her quickly, and she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

…and waited…

…until Kate opened one eye fearfully, and gasped as she saw what was happening right before her. The blue fire was encasing her, but not burning her. In fact, she didn't even feel the heat, instead she felt like a gush of wind was blowing around her pocket of air. The flames died away, and a very astonished dragon and Kate were all that was left.

What just happened? Kate happened to catch a glimpse of her arm, and it was glowing orange! "What in the world…?" she examined herself, and found that every inch of her exterior was shining a shade of orange. The disc was nowhere to be seen. _'Crap, did it burn up?' _she thought. But, the most absurd, and right now one of the greatest, her sword was ignited in a brilliant blaze.

"Whoa," she muttered. The dragon now regained itself, and it prepared another attack. Kate, more confident that ever, wielded her sword like a master. "Come on, you useless lizard! Fight me!" A ball of fire shot from the dragon's mouth, and the female readied herself. With ease, she swatted it and it diminished into mere ambers.

The dragon growled. Kate smirked.

"Fightin' fire with fire, baby."

With a snarl, the beast charged toward the bandicoot. She readied her stance, and shot forward like a burning arrow. They were only meager feet apart, when Kate whipped out her blazing sword, and thrust it into the heart of the animal. The dragon shrieked and reared its head back, and she staggered away to avoid its flailing about. To her amazement, when the dragon should have died, it shrunk into a rat with beady red eyes, and it scuttled off into a crevice, never to be seen again.

"Hm. That's the newest form of reincarnation that I've ever seen," Kate joked, swinging her sword around proudly. Suddenly, the blaze that given the weapon power vanished, and Kate's orange glow began to decrease. Astoundingly, the orange Temporal Disc materialized into her hand, and Kate gazed at it in wonder. "Now that's what I call magic."

* * *

><p>Crunch Bandicoot was relaxing underneath a tree, somewhat exhausted from his tedious workout earlier that morning. Resting underneath a tree during the afternoon was usually Crash's thing, possibly Kate's thing too if she wanted to spend time with him. But, they haven't shown up all day.<p>

"Where'd those two run off to anyway?" he muttered to himself.

"Beats me."

Crunch cursed in surprise and thrashed out of his sitting position. He glimpsed up the tree, to find Coco sitting on one of its lower branches. "Gees, Coco, were you spying on me?" he scorned. The blond bandicoot girl shrugged.

"I've been up here longer than you have been sitting down there."

Crunch snorted and folded his arms. He sighed. "So you haven't seen those two lovebirds around here?"

"Not since Kate and Crash went out in the early morning."

"That was nearly eight hours ago. Did they decide to build a fort or something?"

"No, she said she was going for a swim with Crash," Coco said. "She also said she was teaching him how to, but I doubt he'll even let her."

"Yeah, the little hydrophobic."

It was quiet after that, and Coco began to fiddle with her ponytail, and Crunch messed with the dials on his arm. Then, something very vital occurred to him. "Coco!"

"What?"

"Who's going to cook dinner if they don't make it home on time?"


	5. Romans and Cowboys

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>It was times like this that one would think that since the disc was collected, the mighty adventurer who had braved through so much to get it would return home and be rewarded. This happened to be one of those times, although Crash Bandicoot wasn't going home, and he wasn't getting a reward.<p>

The orange-furred bandicoot kicked his foot absently on the dank stone floor beneath him. Why the room was so cold that he could see his own breath was beyond him. The yellow Temporal Disc was what Cortex had desired for him to retrieve, and Crash had not considered that a great achievement. What was so important over a little object that the mad doctor had sought it for? Perhaps, Crash thought, it was its teleportation abilities.

"What a dump," he muttered between thoughts, referring to the dark room that he was imprisoned. It was indeed very grotesque. Crash could see patches of frost all over the cemented walls, and a few oil cans were spilt, but it contents had frozen solid. He noted to himself to be wary of them so he would not slip. A minuscule window in the side opposing the locked doorway was all that lit the room, but it was enough to see where he was going.

Crash, impatient as always, gave an irritated huff. "Hello? Any insane doctors around here? I've got your little Temporal Disc, if that's enough for you!"

His own voice ricocheted off the walls for a moment, as there was only a reply of silence. "Good for nothing ingrates," he muttered.

Crash heard the metal door beginning to unbolt, and it opened. A shaft of light illuminated the chamber, and the bandicoot felt an irritable grin tug at the side of his mouth. "Ah, yes, N. Tropy. What an unpleasant surprise."

Tropy gave Crash a dry look. "I trust you have the Temporal Disc of Teleportation?"

_So, that would explain the ordeal with the sarcophagus,_ Crash thought. But, he wasn't prepared to make it too easy for the chap before him. "And why should I give it to you?" he asked, placing the hand that held the disc on his hip. N. Tropy sneered.

"If you want your petty girl to live, I suggest you present me with the Disc."

And that was that.

Crash grumbled a few words of abhorrence, and handed the Temporal Disc to Tropy. The latter then grinned fiendishly, and gripped the item greedily. "Alright, bandicoot. Your next destination is the Wild West."

"Wild West?" Crash mused. Tropy ignored his statement, and prolonged further.

"You will be looking for the Earth Temporal Disc. You know what to do." That was the conclusion of the consultation, and N. Tropy pointed his staff at Crash. "Twenty-four hours."

Crash was about to come up with a witty response, but soon discovered himself enveloped a bluish light. He sighed, and the world began to swirl in all shades of blue, some green even entering the mix. _Well, here we go again._

* * *

><p>Kate paced about her small room in impatience. For all the trouble she went through to get a stupid disc, they sure were taking their sweet time. The room was of horrible sanitation, as smudges of brown covered the grey walls and papers were scattered everywhere. It was very cold, but to her fortune, the item she possessed was keeping her warm with its mysterious power.<p>

She sighed, and observed the Temporal Disc. It was warm to touch, but not too hot. Kate narrowed her eyes, and studied the small hourglass imprint. She rubbed a finger over it, and the texturing of the smooth disc felt like pebbles from a riverbank. It sure was pretty, something she wouldn't mind placing as an ornament in her room. She smirked.

"It would probably keep it warm, too." Kate's ear caught a noise behind her. She twisted around, only to meet the familiar man from before.

"Kate Clark. I am in belief that you have the Temporal Disc of Fire?" N. Tropy asked blankly. Kate rolled her eyes, and handed out the object to him.

"Here," she muttered. Tropy smirked, and grasped the object from her hands. She hadn't argued, to his good fortune. As soon as it left her grip, Kate felt a wave of iciness wash over her body. She let out a few cold breaths, and shivered. "It's freezing in here!" She crossed her arms in attempt to gain more warmth, warmth she had grown accustomed to.

"Very good," N. Tropy sighed. Kate could only nod, and she noticed that he held also a yellow disc, one that looked a great deal like the Temporal Disc she had gotten.

"Why do you h-have two?"

"Alright, my dear, you are going to be transported to Ancient Rome," he explained, ignoring her question totally, "where you will collect the Temporal Disc of Knowledge. You have twenty-four hours."

"Right," Kate shivered, and prepared for the teleportation. But, before Tropy proceeded, he grimaced.

"Be warned of what powers it may grant you."

Kate furrowed her brow, and stared at Tropy quizzically. "What—"But it was too late, and the swirling teleportation process began.

* * *

><p>Nega Bandicoot growled in frustration as he rummaged through an assortment of various weapons. He stood in a very large lab with Nina Cortex, Dingodile, and Tiny Tiger. He pulled out a pistol, examined it scanty seconds, and put it away with a profanity. Nina had walked over, and glanced at what he was doing.<p>

"You know, cursing up a storm won't make them go any faster," she reckoned. Nega scowled, at put the shotgun he'd been holding back into its respective place.

"Well, I'm itching to do something, brat. I don't exactly want to _wait_ to kill this twerp."

"And I don't want to _wait_ to execute that Kate, but we have to, so deal with it, you moron."

"Oh, come on, wouldn't you at least want to cause some trouble while they're doing their missions?" Nega reasoned. "I'd much rather give 'em a hard time before totally eradicating them. Let's have some fun while it lasts!"

Dingodile pursed his lips in thought. "He 'as a point, you know."

Nega smiled, showing his sharp canines. "See? At least someone else here is sensible."

"Tiny sensible too!" growled the Tasmanian tiger. "Tiny want to crush puny orange bandicoot!"

"We know, and you will, but not right now," Nega stated calmly. Tiny shook his head in affirming eagerness. Nina gazed at the group of male Anthrians with little enthusiasm. They were all imbeciles.

"So what do you suppose we do, hm? Ask Tropy to teleport us back in time _just_ so we can pick on them?" she asked.

Nega placed his bottom lip between his teeth. "Well…I suppose if we convince him, he'd let us go back."

At this time, Dingodile began to chuckle in his deep voice. Nega and Nina both turned to face him directly. "What's so funny?" they asked in unison. The hybrid animal just sniggered more and put thick arm on his hip.

"I don't suppose either of you even recalled the Relics."

Nina contemplated for a moment, and a tiny grin crept upon her thin lips. "You mean the ones that can teleport you through time?"

"Bingo," sneered Dingodile. Nega, not knowing what the Relics were for the fact that he hasn't been around long enough, narrowed his eyes at Dingodile.

"What's a Relic?"

Dingodile sighed. "It's an item that can transport you to different times. It's not meant for any serious business, like altering history, but it does enable time travel."

"So, it's like N. Tropy, only…"

"Only these let you in one time period for a longer amount of time; as long as you want," Nina completed. Nega nodded.

"So, just how are we going to get one of these…Relics?"

"Well, I just so happen to have three of them hidden on the base," Dingodile explained. "We can get to them, and then we can go anywhere we want to."

"Alright! So are we going to set out for this thing or what?" Nega grinned happily. "I'm anxious to rile that orange rodent."

* * *

><p><strong>Roman Empire, 15 B.C.<strong>

It was amazing on how fast reality can seem so unreal. To think that everything that you've once known, everything that you've learned over the short span of your life, can vanish in just a fraction of a second. All that you know now goes against everything you were taught in your previous life. Some would break down from what they have seen or heard. Things that seemed to be impossible. Things that defied what you knew about reality. Some would go insane.

Kate Clark, on the other hand, was handling it rather well.

The redheaded twenty year old female bandicoot was coping with many things that seemed rather impossible. Things that would blow your mind so far away that you wouldn't find it in the nearest oblivion. Time travel, transformations, creepy new villains, and much more; these were only things she had heard about in fictitious tales of superheroes and the like. She had to confess, that it was rather exasperating. But her motivation was renewed every time she remembered that they had her lover held captive.

Stealth had become an important tactic. Kate knew that wandering though civilizations both ancient and modern as an Anthrian required much of this valuable ability. The many people in the great Roman Empire posed as a threat, not to mention the minority of warriors that she would see parading throughout the streets. She made a mental note to keep a careful watch for guards and such, for she wouldn't want to end up in yet another dangerous ordeal.

Kate inched her way through the shadow of the Pantheon, the building dedicated to worship all Roman deities. Its walls were made a bright marble, one Kate could have mistaken for ivory. She even considered ripping a chunk out of it and bringing it back to N. Tropy, claiming it was the Temporal Disc. Though, the thought was one that was quickly dismissed, and even she knew that he wouldn't buy it. Temporal Discs have power, as she had come to know.

The bandicoot stood at the very edge of the shadows, listening to the alien dialect of two Roman men. They were speaking in Latin, she realized. They were talking at such a pace that Kate couldn't even make out half of the foreign gabbling that ensued. Why did she even try? She only understood the basics of Latin, yet another language course she had taken in college.

The men laughed heartily, and she couldn't help but grin as well. They nodded, said a few words, and suddenly one of them became serious. He began to speak slowly, and she was able to translate something like, "The prize of the gladiator battle in the Coliseum is said to be a great knowledge, one that is as great as the gods."

_The gods, huh? _Kate wondered with a smirk. _Bet the gods have something to do with the Temporal Disc I'm after._

"Are we going?" asked the shorter one. The taller, lankier one nodded.

"Yes. Let us leave before it starts. I hear they are having the lions this time."

With that, the two Romans left the arch of the Pantheon, leaving the woman of a different time to contemplate in the shadows. Should she go to the Coliseum to try and find this item of great knowledge? What if it wasn't the Temporal Disc? What about the lions and the gladiators? Were they worth the risk?

Well, she wasn't going to get out of here if she didn't have that Temporal Disc within the day, so she shrugged aside the warning thoughts that penetrated her mind, and she crept toward the stadium.

* * *

><p><strong>Arizona, 1867 A.D.<strong>

Crash tumbled across the dirt clumsily. Oh, how he had come to despise time travel throughout the years. With a dusty cough, he straightened himself into a sitting position, and he brushed the dirt off of himself. He decided that this was the appropriate moment to take a gander at his surroundings. The dirt he sat on was an orange color, and various types of grasses were scattered across the the ground. The sky was as blue as blue could get, and not a cloud in sight. The heat was actually rather tolerable, considering that the temperate island heat was only less by a few degrees.

The bandicoot shook his head. "Focus, Crash. Find that disc, and get out of here alive. After all, how dangerous is the Wild West, anyway?" he spoke with more confidence. As those words were spoken, gunfire was heard, and he felt a wind whiz right over his head. "Need I even ask?" Crash muttered.

He turned around, to see a thin man, who looked no older than he, trembling and gripping the reins to his white horse tightly. "Who—or should I say what—are ya?"

Crash shrugged. "I'm a bandicoot." The man fired at Crash again, this time only missing him by a hair. He heaved a sharp exhale. "Gees! It's rude to shoot at people!"

"You ain't no person! You's a walkin', talkin' coyote er somethin'!" beckoned the cowboy in terrible English. "You ain't right!"

Crash dodged yet another bullet. This guy had terrible aim, lucky for him. He just had to wait until the guy ran out of bullets. Until then… Small talk was his alternative. "I'm not right? Guess I should see a doctor then, shouldn't I?" Another bullet zipped past his abdomen. "Of course, I've been seeing my family witchdoctor for a few years now."

Finally, when the cowboy pulled the trigger, all he heard was a click. He glanced at it nervously, and tried again. Same result. Crash grinned. "Aw, looks like you're out of bullets." He sighed. "Now, sorry about this."

The orange bandicoot shook a sore fist, and placed the now bare-chested man on the earth. He then tried to get a good look at himself. The brown leather vest over a blue long-sleeved shirt looked quite nice on him. He wore a red handkerchief over his muzzle, and a white-colored cowboy hat to hide his ears. He was sure he looked like an old-western guy, so that was good enough for him.

Crash glanced up at the horse. It was pretty tall compared to him, and it looked like a struggle to mount the massive creature. "Okay, horsey, let's see if you'll be as congenial as all the other creatures I've ridden on." He neared the horse, and it stood firm, not backing away or running off. Seems this horse was going to make things easy for him. Crash readied himself, put two hands on the saddle, and took a large leap. He landed on the saddle gracefully, almost as if he was a cowboy himself. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" he said merrily.

The horse then bucked forward, dashing across the landscape promptly. Crash's eyes were enlarged in sudden shock, and he held onto his hat to keep it from falling off, and then the reins to keep himself from falling off. "Whoa!"

The mighty white steed dashed across the clear desert, but then Crash noticed a clutter of buildings remotely in the distance. _Okay, gotta get this thing to head in that direction, _he thought to himself. But first, how did he operate it? He'd ridden plenty of things before, but not a horse. Well, time for his resourceful tactics to kick in.

Crash tugged on the right side of the reins, and the horse shifted in the direction. He tried it with the left, and it steered that way. Alright, now he understood how to maneuver; that's an upside. Haughtily proud of himself, Crash grinned beneath the red bandana and snapped the reins. "Mush!"


	6. Cowboys and Romans

**A Crash is Time**

* * *

><p>Dingodile was quite the leisurely fellow, as Nega had come to know. He didn't rush with most things, and he was quiet when it didn't involve something sinister. Even as the hybrid led him, Nina, and Tiny down the hall that they were unfamiliar with, he did it with a pleasant stride. Dingodile had told them that he had hidden three Relics in the base, and since this was a part of the base they hadn't seen before, they figured he had indeed. Unfortunately, it was growing even colder by the minute.<p>

Nina sighed. "Why'd my uncle have to build his stupid base in Antarctica?" At this, Nega smiled.

"He's a cold-hearted fool. Surely this suites him."

"Oh, quiet. At least you have fur, you moron!"

"Try finding warmth in that heart of yours, brat," sneered the bandicoot. Nina growled, and struck his arm. "OW! Shit! You're hands are made of metal!"

"You two," snapped Dingodile, "stop acting like a coupla kids."

The two silenced, leaving Nega nursing his bruised arm. He knew as well as the next guy that he acted very childish sometimes, perhaps even worse than Nina herself. But, who was he if he didn't? What was the fun in being sober all the time? He sighed, and shoved his clawed hands in his jacket pockets. "So, how far until we get to the Relics, gator boy?"

"About two doors down," responded Dingodile. "And don't call me 'gator boy,' or you'll be the next one on the bandicoot menu."

Nega wasn't particularly fond of being roasted and eaten; the thought made him rather sick. "Got it." Even though he'd never admit it, Dingodile was pretty intimidating, even more than the Tasmanian tiger that walked beside Nega. Despite Tiny being larger in size, he wasn't exactly the brightest flashlight in the drawer. Dingodile was smart; he had plenty of common sense and knew more that one way to kill someone. Nega was pretty smart too, but he wasn't as strong as Dingodile. He relied on agility, weapons, and claws to get him through a target.

His thoughts were cut short, when the fearsome foursome reached the door. Dingo produced a large key from his khakis, and shoved it into the keyhole. The door opened, and immediately Nega noticed a bright light coming from the room. "Whoa, must be a couple of bright little suckers."

They stepped inside the well-lit room, and when Nega saw the three Relics sitting on their respective pedestals, he felt mesmerized by their beauty. One was of a deep sapphire, another of a shiny gold, and the last brilliant platinum. "They sure are pretty," muttered the crimson-furred biped.

"That's not all they are," Nina smiled. "They can do quite a bit."

"What we do with shiny jewels?" asked Tiny. Nega half-grinned, and slapped him on the back.

"We're gonna go and give 'em hell."

"Oh," Tiny nodded. "Tiny cause orange bandicoot trouble. Tiny happy!" With that, the powerful beast returned the gesture to Nega, who gave a yelp of surprise and flew forward and landing on the ground with little elegance.

"You get the point at least," he moaned. Nina stood over him, both hands on her hip and impatience ridding her features.

"Get up, moron. We got things to do."

"Sorry to have you so upset over my well-being," Nega grumbled mordantly, his moment of sarcasm spent. "Alright Dingo, how do these things work?"

The crossbreed sneered, and stood behind the three charms. He cleared his throat. "Well, these beauties here are meant to travel through time, as we had discussed before. All you have to do to get them to work is to concentrate on where you want to go, which in this case is where those two bandicoots are. Just think of their location, say that's where you want to go, and there you have it. You're there in a matter of seconds."

"Cool," Nina spoke. "Just a quick question: if these can travel through time, why doesn't my uncle just use these?"

"Like I said, these can't change history. If we tried using these with his plan, time wouldn't be affected at all. The Temporal Discs make these little guys inferior. Even with the three of them, the six discs are more powerful."

"Alright, we can sit here and explain things all day, but that is just plain boring. Let's get to it," Nega urged, and rubbed his hands together greedily. "Which one's mine?"

* * *

><p>Beneath a set of armor, Kate readied herself. She just hoped that she wouldn't die in the fight. She'd read that gladiators fought to the death, and she wasn't exactly too fond with the thought of killing someone. Maybe she could wait for the lot of them to destroy themselves, and then come out? Nah, they probably wouldn't give her the Temporal Disc. She sighed.<p>

Over her set of black clothing, a golden breastplate protected her torso, front and back. A Roman helmet sheltered the back of her head. A large circular wooden shield was what was left of her defense. A thick and really heavy sword stood firm in her grasp. She wished that this time, it wielded the power of fire like before. Obviously, she wasn't so lucky this time, and it was even more hulking than the one from before. It was surely tailored to the specifications of a strong, masculine warrior. But, she wanted to prove that she could be strong too, despite her twig-like body.

"Okay you Roman dunces, be prepared to get conquered by woman!" She gathered herself, and dashed out into the arena. When she expected to find a group of many clashing warriors, she was astonished to find the arena empty. The crowd cheered at her arrival. "What the?"

A bald man clothed in a purple toga and a golden crown, stood up. He began to speak in Latin, and Kate translated in her mind, "We have a challenger! He dares to face to the ferocious lions, and the mighty beast! Challenger, what is your name?"

Kate couldn't _speak_ Latin, so she replied with a shout, "Kate Clark!"

It puzzled the emperor, but he gave a nod. "Kate Clark is the brave gladiator! May the gods spare mercy on your soul, and if you shall win, you will be granted a great knowledge! Let the execution—erm, I mean battle begin!"

The crowd cheered yet again, and Kate couldn't help but smile. She felt rather appreciated at this moment. "Well, no need to applaud so loudly for me. I already know how awesome I am. I mean, how bad is facing a couple of angry kitties?"

The doors on the opposite side of the arena opened. Kate saw three lions, two male and one female, pushed out into the open with a growl. They looked pretty mad, and as soon as their eyes fell on her, she gulped. "Nice… Felines…"

The group of large cats roared, and they surged forward. Kate gave a yell of fright, and dashed around the arena screaming. She hated cats; always had. She preferred dogs more than anything. Even she and Pura didn't get along quite well. But, even now that tiger's assistance would be greatly valued.

She felt a heavy force on her back push her down to the ground with an "oomph!" The weight of the one that had brought her downward was very heavy, undoubtedly a lion. She struggled against the creature. "Get off!"

The beast gave a growl, as if saying "no." Perhaps it was Kate's delirious quick-thinking that she got a "As long as you're covered in flesh, you ain't goin' nowhere."

Perhaps she was going insane, and was cracking under the pressure, in more ways than one. Kate found herself grinning, almost so wide it could have split her face apart. "I said, get off!" With an unbelievable amount of strength, Kate bucked the feline off of her back. It turned out to be the single lioness, and she landed on her back with a cry of pain. The two males just ignored her, and sauntered toward Kate slowly.

The bandicoot was in no mood to be catnip, and with a grunt, she staggered to her own two feet. "Alright you kitty killers, let's see how you like mutant bandicoots!"

With a battle cry, the redhead raised her shield as one of the prodigious beasts lunged at her, claws bared. She was pushed backward, but amazingly she stood her ground. The other male and the recovered female stalked toward her, their fangs showing and a deep rumble coming from their chests. Kate was nearly sure she was a goner when all three of them were coming at her, ready to pounce at any moment. It was then, that the female leaped at Kate once again.

The two ladies wrestled on the ground, Kate's helmet tearing off in the process. The crowd gasped, but Kate was too busy hearing the sound of her own stressed heart thrumming in her ears. The lioness on top of her growled threateningly as the latter tried shoving her off. The lion snapped it head forward, its teeth biting into one of Kate's ears. Kate gave a scream of pain, and out of automatic reaction used her own canines as a source of offense. She bit into the lioness's neck, and the feline tumbled off of Kate in sudden surprise.

As Kate stumbled back to her feet, unsure of what had really happened but well aware of the blood that was now inside her mouth. Her right ear was crying out in agony, and it felt wet and hot with the crimson liquid that was her own. The group of lions stood their ground. It looked as if the lioness was ready attack again, but she then began to back up in fear, as did the males.

Kate, through heavy breathing, felt a devilish smile curl her lips. She spat put some of the blood that wasn't hers. "That's right! I have teeth too, kitty! You better be afraid!"

She had dropped her shield and sword in the fight, and was about to retrieve them. But, she learned that it wasn't her that was putting the lions at bay. Oh no, she saw a huge, bulking shadow looming over her, blocking out the sun. "What the—"

Kate turned around and gasped. The large creature that loomed over her grinned hungrily. "Tiny eat small girl bandicoot now."

* * *

><p>"Well, well, well. What's the dust kicked up this time?" muttered a man just behind Crash. Said bandicoot, still disguised, was sitting pleasantly at a saloon bar, and held a cocktail in his hand. He twisted his head around, half-amused.<p>

"What's it look like?" he grumbled bitterly.

"Looks alike little ruffian who needs to learn hisself some manners, say Bill?" the man beside the former, Bill, chortled. "He's gonna get hisself in trouble with those kinda words."

Crash rolled his eyes, and sipped his drink again. The bartender, the mustached man polishing the counters, had seen this. "Ah, pay 'em no mind, stranger. That's Bill and Clyde. They're nothin' but a coupla roughhousers who like to taunt jus' 'bout anyone in here."

"Thanks," Crash sighed. "So, know of anything here in these parts? Like a legend or a treasure…?"

The bartender shrugged. "I've worked her for 'bout 8 years now. They only thing I've eva hear someone talk about something are coupla miners. The poor gents were delusional, I tell you."

The bandicoot suddenly became interested. "Miners, you say? Well, what were they saying?"

"Hey!" barked Bill. Crash grumbled an irate sigh.

"What do you what?"

"You's awfully scrawny. Bet you can't even herd yer own cattle! Heck, you prolly couldn't even lead a calf to a barn!" The two men began to laugh. Crash's anger began to rise, but he instead of battling it out, he used another method.

"Hey, at least I'm not the one who's a total fatso," he grinned.

"WHAT?" Bill yelled. Indeed, he was a balding, stout man.

Crash felt a small, tight grin form at the corner of his mouth. "I'm surprised your horse could even carry you this far." He took another drink of his cocktail, and could almost hear Bill steaming.

"Boy, you got some nerve talkin' 'bout me like that! You's lucky I won't come over there and scalp you!"

"Why? What's stopping you? Can't drag your feet that far?"

By now, Crash knew he was taking his taunts to a level he'd never thought he would have, but he'd had quite enough of these guys' interference. Instantly, he felt a tall, thick figure leaning over him, and another smaller one close behind. Too close for comfort. "You wanna say that again, foreigner?"

Crash, nearly finished with his drink, set it on the counter. "Why bother?"

Bill grabbed him by the shirt collar, and held him close to his face. "'Cause I want a reason to tear you apart right here." Crash calmly looked down at the meaty hand that held his shirt.

"I'd prefer for you to let go of me."

"Or what?" sneered Bill.

"Yeah, or what?" Clyde repeated.

Crash sighed, and shrugged. "Well, you asked."

In a matter of moments, Crash was ripping around the bar in a cyclone frenzy. The two men weren't expecting this and were flabbergasted. Soon, the orange tornado clashed into both of them, overturned tables, and tore pictures from the wall. During the chaos, the bartender took shelter behind the bar. After what Crash considered to be a good amount of time spinning around, he spun to a stop. He found his hat had flown off, along with the bandana.

But, what pleased him was that the two men were leaning against the wall, unconscious from the blows he had given. "They asked," Crash tsked. He stretched his arms, and looked around for his hat and bandana. Eventually he found them, on the planked floors next to a couple of folks who had taken refuge under a table that was still standing. "Sorry about that, mates," he apologized. They seemed more shocked by his face than what had happened minutes ago.

Placing the broad white hat back on his head, the bandicoot strode back over to the bar, and knocked on the surface. "Mr. Bartender?"

The man slowly glanced at Crash, not making a sound, therefore the orange marsupial continued, "What exactly did those miners say?"

"Th-they… They were sayin' how this treasure in their mine split it apart, a-an' it was leading into a pit of magma… Please don't kill me, y-you can 'ave anything you want! Anything on the house! The whole register!"

Crash took the small cocktail in his hand, guzzled down the rest of it, and placed it on the counter again. "Thanks." He tied the bandana around his muzzle again, and began to leave the saloon. At the doorway, he hesitated. "Oh, and sorry about your bar."

He pushed out into the street, and quickly walked over to where he had tied up his white horse. "Alright, boy—"He paused and glimpsed quickly. "I mean girl. We better scoot before someone catches this coot."

The female horse gave a small neigh, and Crash untied her from the post. He hefted himself up onto the saddle, and gripped the reins. "C'mon." She backed up, and began to make a quick trot down the large path.

After some time of exploring the town in search of any information, he saw two men in miners' outfits talking in the shade of a store. He led the horse over to where they stood. "Excuse me gentlemen. You wouldn't happen to work at the mine, would you?"

"The silver mine? Not anymore; it's long gone," replied a man who seemed to be Mexican.

"Gone? What do you mean?"

"No one works there anymore. It's cursed."

"Yeah," said the other, a Chinese man of, by the looks of it, poor health.

_Interesting,_ Crash thought. _Two miners coming from a cursed mine. This could be my shot at finding that Temporal Disc._ "Where's it located?"

"Down by Tuba City, about four miles from here. You're not thinking of going there are you?" asked the Hispanic man.

"Well, I'm supposed to check it out…" Crash said. It wasn't a lie, but that wasn't what slowed his speech. What he saw, not twenty feet from where he was mounted on his horse, was a short woman watching a man fixing the wheel of a carriage.

"When will it be fixed?" she asked him. He examined the overall damage, and sighed sadly.

"About a day or two. We don't have the tools, and the repair shop is closed on Sundays."

She was deeply saddened by this, and gripped her purse tighter. Crash could only gawk at her, aghast. How? It wasn't possible… There's no way. But this woman looked just like her! Well, like she did before. But this female he was staring at now looked a great deal like—

"Kate…?" Crash muttered. He had zoned out of the miner's warnings and had subconsciously guided the horse closer to the woman who seemed like a duplicate of Kate's human form. Only this time, she wore a thick pink and white dress and a wide-brimmed pink hat to match.

She looked at him. "May I help you, sir?" she asked tiredly.

After a moment, Crash realized that this couldn't possibly be Kate. She was being held captive by Cortex, as he recalled. But, how could someone look just like she did? "Sir?" she asked again. Then it hit him. Genetic resemblance. It occurred in certain families, and apparently Kate's was one of them.

"Um, I couldn't help but notice your little dilemma here," he responded, blinking away his amazement. She smiled somewhat.

"Yes. Seems I'm out of a ride to Tuba City."

Crash tried his best not to start flirting with her or dropping very naughty comments, but she looked like his girl! _But she's not Crash. Get a hold of yourself. _"Well, you know I happen to be heading in that direction." What was he doing?

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Crash said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know; if you need a ride… I'd be more than glad to… you know, assist you." Her eyes lit up, something Crash found himself trying not to like, but then they dimmed slightly.

"I couldn't ask you to do that."

"No, please. It'd be my pleasure." _Of course it would, _his mind muttered. Crash mentally groaned. _You just know you're going to say something stupid._

"You mean it? You'd take me all the way up to that town?" she asked, a smile formed over her red-colored lips. "Four miles away?"

"Of course! After all, you remind me of my…" he paused. "Uh, my wife." _Wife! Ha! Now Kate's your wife, huh Crash? Seems I missed the proposal, _his mind laughed at him. He grumbled, and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"You're married? Well, most men are now," she said. "I'm not yet; I have yet to meet a swell bachelor."

"Well, maybe one day you'll find him," he assured. "Hop on."

With his help, she mounted the horse, sitting in it awkwardly due to the dress. He turned his head sideways as to look at her. "Ready, sweet cheeks?"

_Again, another stupid statement. Where's your head these days?_

She giggled, and grasped her arms around his waist. "Yes, sir."

"You can call me… Crash, if you'd like."

"Crash?"

"Nickname."

After another moment of silence, he snapped the reins and the horse began to gallop toward the exit of the small Western parish. "So what do I call you?" he asked her.

"You can call me Katherine," she stated.

"Got it. Onward to Tuba City then!"

From the shadows of the city bank, a dark figure smiled, showing rows of pearly white canines. His piercing golden eyes followed the departing duo. "Well, well. Seems pretty boy found himself a clone of Doll Face. Useful information."

With that, he turned his own black stallion toward the way they were heading, and he turned his dark brown cowboy hat down. "Very useful."

* * *

><p>"Aku, are you saying that they're nowhere on the islands?" Coco asked. The witchdoctor mask nodded worriedly.<p>

"I'm afraid so. I can't feel their presence, nor have I found any clues. They have vanished, it seems."

"Coco! How do I fry an egg?" Crunch yelled from the kitchen. The small girl ignored him for the moment, and focused her attention on Aku.

"Do think you might know where they're at?"

"I have a grave feeling that Cortex is responsible for their sudden disappearance. This has occurred to you're brother once before. Perhaps this time, they were both taken."

"Oh…" Coco moaned. A stream of profanities hissed from the kitchen, and Crunch dashed out.

"Where's the fire extinguisher?"

"In the closet…" she replied with her brow furrowed. "How hard is it to fry an egg?"

Crunch already had the extinguisher in his grasp and was darting for the kitchen. By now, smoke was pouring out of the archway and the fire alarm was ringing without end. "I'm not a chef, alright?"

After the flames were diminished, Crunch, Coco, and Aku stared at his culinary abomination in silent shock. "You know, I kinda miss Kate," Crunch sighed.

"Me too. I'll just order pizza from Wumpa City tonight," she sighed. _Oh, big brother, where are you? _


	7. An Interference

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Now, upon seeing a giant tiger looming over you, you'd think that now would be the exceptional time to panic. Kate simply stood there, gaping at the massive hulk that had called itself "Tiny." How ironic. The latter bared his sharp teeth that could doubtlessly tear her to shreds. She gulped.<p>

"Hey there, big guy."

His snarl turned into a gleeful smile. "Hello little orange girl! Tiny told to eat you, because Tiny afraid of Nina," he explained with whisper, just out of the hearing range of the small girl behind him. She looked no older than Coco, and seemed so familiar to Kate. But her gaze averted back to Tiny. "Tiny be quick."

Kate coughed, and cautiously stepped back slowly. "How about Tiny _not_ eat Kate?" she suggested. "Heh, little orange girl is nice!"

The massive beast before her seemed to understand her proposals, but shook his head 'no.' "Tiny have to hurry. Tiny not have time."

"Well in that case," Kate shrugged, and began to run as fast as her nimble legs could carry her around the arena. She quickly began to scour for an exit, and the doors that the lions she had previously battled came from seemed to be a place of refuge. Kate stopped at the door, and suddenly couldn't find a doorknob. With a short curse, she began to hear a roar and the ground suddenly begin to quake. A look of pure regret crossed her features, and she rotated around to perceive Tiny Tiger running at full velocity toward her.

He slid to a stop and picked her up by the shirt collar, and held her directly in his face. Kate bit her lip and gazed at Tiny in remorse. "Why you run from Tiny?" he growled. Quickly, she fumbled for an answer.

"Well, you see, I don't exactly have a desire for being eaten," Kate said. Tiny's ferocious expression lessened, and she continued. "I have to save my obnoxious boyfriend Crash."

Tiny gasped. "You little orange man's girlfriend?"

She nodded, suddenly hopeful. "Yeah, and I would really like it if you set me down." But her efforts of coaxing the tiger were futile, and he stared at her through small eyes sadly. Her optimism shattered.

"Tiny sorry. Nina told Tiny to eat you." If Kate got out of this alive, she would swear she would kill that 'Nina.'

And so, he cracked his jaws open wide, and held her over the crater that was his mouth. Kate saw dozens of sharp, huge canines. _Well, Kate, how are you to get yourself out of this one? _Just as her feet her near his muzzle, she thrust her foot to his nose, and instantly he shrieked in pain. She found herself falling toward the ground at a rapid rate, and landed rather ungracefully in the dirt. A small groan escaped her lips, and she quickly recovered herself and clambered to her feet. Just then, it occurred to her where that little girl "Nina" was from.

She was related to Cortex.

The redhead growled, and shot a look of anger at the small, buck-toothed teenager. "You!" she accused.

"Yeah, me. Gotta say, you look different from when I last saw you. You're not a gutless machine anymore," she sneered, and placed a metal hand on her hip. The other hand hung loosely at her side, seizing a small blue object that shined. Kate was about to discharge a nasty reply, yet Tiny had recuperated and wasn't happy.

"Little orange lady get EATEN!" shouted Tiny, and dashed clumsily in her direction. Alright, time to dread. He came fast, and she had no time to run, so when he jumped, she performed a well-executed baseball slide underneath his ridiculously small legs. Kate coughed when the dust they had kicked up entered her lungs, and her eyes began to water.

Subconsciously, she felt a few tears roll down her eyes as she strained to see. Unfortunately, what she saw wasn't pleasing. Tiny was head and shoulders above, staring her down and snorting in anger. Kate coughed again, and unintentionally sobbed. This made the Tasmanian tiger cock his head.

"Little orange lady crying? Why?"

Kate tried to rub the dirt out of her eyes, and was about to tell the lug that she wasn't lament. But, just as she opened her mouth to explain, she smiled slightly, and began sobbing. She placed both of her hands on her eyes, and began to weep. "I'm… I'm just sad… Be-because you said you were gonna eat me."

She didn't want to lie to the fella, but if she wanted to survive, she had to do something. Tiny gazed at her in regret. "But Tiny have to."

"You might as well…" Kate sighed, and sniffed, wiping her nose. "So just get it done and over with."

"Okay," Tiny said, and was about to, but paused. Kate sighed quietly in relief. "But Tiny not want to eat sad little orange lady when she's sad!"

"Oh," Kate choked out, "Please, just rid of my horrible life forever! I may never see my love again, and—and on top of that, I was sent back in time to find some stupid stone! Do me a favor, and devour me quickly."

Tiny bit his lip softly. "Please small bandicoot girl, don't cry!"

"Why?" Kate wailed, sobbing and snuffling more than ever before. And, to her immediate surprise, she heard a cry starting to join hers, and when she peeked through the slits of her fingers, she saw Tiny beginning to weep as well. She stopped her act for a moment, and a small smile cracked on her lips. "W-why are you crying?" she croaked.

"Because Tiny sad for you!" he said between tears. Kate got to her feet, when she had been kneeling, and briskly walked past him. She slapped his shoulder quickly.

"Thanks for caring," she said, and made her way to the brat she was sure was responsible for all of this. Nina, quickly intimidated, began to back up instinctively.

"Hey uh, no hard feelings, right?" she asked. Kate didn't seem amused, and narrowed her glare at the teen. "After all, we're all girls here, and—and—TINY! LET'S GO!" Nina dashed toward the weeping tiger, and placed a metal hand on his shoulder. She shut her eyes tight trying to gain focus, and the two of them enveloped in a white light and vanished.

Kate's brows arched, and the crowd was quiet. "Well, whaddya know?" she murmured. Just as soon as those words were spoken, the crowd in the arena burst into an uproar, and even the emperor was standing and clapping. Kate began to smile, and then she grinned wide. "Yeah! That's right! I just handed their asses to them! All hail Kate the Red!"

Where this sudden burst of arrogance came from, she didn't know. Perhaps it was this sudden praise of glory, or evidence that Crash was indeed beginning to rub off on her. The emperor hushed the crowd, and smiled warmly upon the bandicoot female in the arena. He spoke in his Latin dialect, "This young creature has truly shown us what it is like to be a proper warrior. She must be a goddess."

"Ah, no thanks necessary. I'm just doin' my job," Kate said. He offered a puzzled look, not understanding her English tongue. Nevertheless, he continued.

"She is worthy of the great gift of knowledge, said to be offered by the Minerva, goddess of wisdom, strength, and strategy. Perhaps she is indeed the incarnation of our great goddess from above; in a being man has not yet seen."

Hm. Now they were thinking she was a deity in some sort of new being. If Kate decided to tell them that she was just an ordinary bandicoot with no godly powers and was traveling through time, the odds were that they wouldn't give her that little disc that sat perched beside the emperor. With a sigh, Kate tried her very best to form Latin words to come from her mouth.

"Uh… Yeah… I'm Minerva, and I would please the Temporal Disc," she said. It came out slowly and choppy, but the group seemed to understand and awed in her presence. The emperor nodded, and gently grabbed the disc. He tossed it like a Frisbee toward her, and it soared over the crowd and over the arena. Kate gasped in shock and tried to catch it, but it fell just short of her fingertips, and Kate expected it to shatter on the ground.

Instead, it levitated just a few inches before actually making the impact, and hovered in the air. Kate blinked, and gripped it. The crowd cheered, and she stared at her treasure in admiration. It was like polished marble, yet it was of an ivory color. The imprint of an hour glass was stamped into the center.

"Look! Look! The goddess is glowing!" shouted a Roman from the crowd. Kate snapped out of the hypnosis, and she got a glance at herself. She gasped. Her fur had changed into a pallid white, and her hair was almost pink. A strange eerie white shine emitted from all over her body. Her eyes averted back to the Temporal Disc that she had been holding, and it was radiating the same glow as she.

Words began to whisper through her mind. It was almost as if every secret in the world was being revealed to her at this very moment. She knew every language, every piece of history, just everything! It strained her brain, and she thought it might burst. Yikes; that would be a mess to clean up. Soon, it dwindled, yet Kate felt extremely knowledgeable, and it felt good.

In fact, it felt godly.

With a very sinful smirk, Kate turned to the crowd, and spoke in a fully-accomplished Latin tongue: "People! I, Minerva, must leave. I have a very great business to tend to; one that threatens your far future. It has been my honor to gain my treasure, one of the Temporal Discs, from you."

She turned and left the arena, leaving the crowd cheering. As she paced through the streets, she began to grow increasingly angry. By the time she had reached the shade of a tree, Kate found her fists clenched hard and her teeth beginning to grind. With her sudden knew awareness; she knew everything about the Temporal Discs. She seated herself underneath the tree, closed her eyes, and sighed deeply.

"_Katelyn Annabel Clark…" _whispered a voice. Her head snapped up, and she scanned her surroundings for the speaker.

"Hello?"

"_You are the next retriever of the Discs, I presume. It is of my duty to tell you of our history."_

Great. Just great. She was getting talked to by a voice in her head again. First Cyboria, now some other force. Hopefully this one didn't want to kill Crash, or love him for that matter. She sighed irately, and knew that this was the disembodied voice of the Temporal Disc that sat in her lap.

"Alright," she muttered. "Get on with it then. That Tropy guy's taking forever."

"_There is no need to speak. We are able to communicate telepathically," _it said. Kate grinned.

"_Really? Cool! So uh, tell me more about your past, or whatever. I think I should know, considering I'm collecting you guys."_

"_Very well. Long ago, before time was even evident, there were six stones that revolved around the Sun. Eventually, the Sun, our master, had told us that he was going to make life. Therefore, he used the Temporal Disc of Earth to create land and water. Then, the Temporal Disc of Life, the one of us that was good and selfless, brought up humans. He gained the approval of the Sun for their existence, and they prospered. But, the Temporal Disc of Desire began to plant gluttony and envy into the mind of innocents, and that led to murder, war, and hatred. The Sun saw this, and instructed the Temporal Disc of Earth to wipe them out with a flood. Several humans survived, yet they spread out all over the globe._

"_It was out of Desire's deeds that the six of us had to suffer the consequence. As punishment, we were scattered all over the earth as well, never in full control of our own powers. The only we retained was the ability to travel time and remain stable. Desire and I are the only ones that are allowed to give information to our wielders."_

Kate took in this with a very curious nod. _"So, let me get this straight. I'm supposed to collect you, some fire disc, and that Desire?"_

"_There are six Temporal Discs, Katelyn. There is an ancient proverb, 'With the use of fire, man got desire; turned down a great knowledge, and destroyed the earth. In the end, it was his friend, that teleported him to life again.' It is the saying that tells of each of us. I am Knowledge, and the others are of Desire, Life, Fire, Earth, and Teleportation. Katelyn, you must realize that Desire can harm you, and can change you. You may have been told that I am dangerous; I know you have. I am merely trying to help. Once we are gathered, we can time travel efficiently."_

Kate paused, and grumbled aloud, "Cortex. He only said I had to collect three!"

"_Perhaps he has sent another scout, perhaps a friend of yours?"_

"_No, not a friend; a boyfriend."_

"_I see. He must be going after Desire, Teleportation, and Life. He has been acquitted with the most dangerous of the Temporal Discs. I am dreadfully sorry, my dear."_

"_I swear, Cortex is going to pay for this! I'm not going to collect another Disc for that bastard!"_

"_That is where you must. If one Disc has been gathered and the others are not reunited with it as well, time will begin to disrupt. It cannot be helped; Katelyn, you must continue with your journey."_

"_It's Kate! And I ain't gotta do anything some plate tells me to do!"_

"_It is for the sake of your friend and the world."_

Kate stopped. The complete calmness of the treasure was astonishing, and how concerned it seemed to be. It was strange. _"So are you saying that if I don't do this, the world will be in danger? And, if I fork the rest of you over to Cortex, the world will be doomed anyway? What is getting accomplished?"_

"_There is always a chance to stop him. If anything, I know the great Crash Bandicoot, alongside Kate Clark, can put an end to his shenanigans."_

She could swear she could feel it smiling, yet the darn thing lacked a face. "Alright, alright. You're starting to sound like Aku. Now, all I gotta do now is to wait for N. Tropy…"

* * *

><p>"Daddy! Daddy, this is the generous man that brought me into town!"<p>

Crash sighed, and cast his eyes to the planks below. He shoved his hands into his pockets, and instantly he felt two small hands giving his bicep a slight squeeze. "Isn't he nice?" Katherine smiled up at Crash. He nodded slightly, and turned his head away. Across from the two, there stood a man in a nice suit, a green tie partially hiding beneath his jacket. The thing about him that amused Crash most was his curly mustache; the way it coiled on the ends was rather humorous.

"Is that so?" he asked, situating his single bifocal. He was balding, the poor man, and it reminded Crash of Gary, Kate's uncle.

"Yes sir," Crash confirmed, due to his Australian accent it came out _Yes suh. _The banker immediately picked it up.

"You're not from around here, I see. Nevertheless, I thank you for bringing my daughter to me. I am Fredrick Ferguson, owner of this fine economic establishment, and you are?"

Crash chewed his lip nervously. Names, names; why was everyone asking for them? Well, no point in avoiding this man's question. Crash had to come up with something. "I'm—"here it comes, "Jack."

And so, Crash felt as if _déjà vu _had walked up to him, stared him in the eye, and slapped him in the face. The Kate "clone", the stout bald man, the clever disguise; all of it was purely just too familiar. Although this time, Fredrick Ferguson furrowed his brow dubiously. "Jack…?

Oh, now he had to come up with a last name _too_? Great, just great. Hm… Well luckily, Kate was an avid movie watcher, and Crash had offered to sit through several of her American flicks. Of course, none of them could be runner-ups to the delight of sleep, which followed soon after Crash seated himself beside Kate and in front of the TV. Of course later, she'd rouse him awake to tell him that a good part was coming up, and he stayed conscious just long enough to please her. After the many movies he'd endured, there'd been several names that he'd care to note.

There was a small list of "Jacks" in his mind, and he finally picked a good one. It was rather embarrassing, but even so he gave it a go. "Jack—er, Black." He knew Kate would be snickering if she had been there. But, before they could continue, Crash added quickly, "But you can call me by my nickname, Crash."

"Crash?" the banker said, casting his daughter, who was still smiling beside the bandicoot, a rather bemused expression.

"Ain't it cute, Daddy?" she beamed. Crash's eyes widened.

"It's not cute!"

"Whatever you say," she smiled. Crash feared the only thing holding her back was that he said he was married, and on that alone. Mr. Ferguson sighed, and produced a small pocketbook from his pouch.

"So, Mr. Black. How much do you want for bringing her back, hm? Three?"

"Oh, no, I couldn't take your money," Crash assured. "I did it simply out of generosity; nothing more." The money meant nothing to him, as he only needed to get that Temporal Disc, and get out. Besides, money from the 1800's probably would no next to squat in 21st century Australia.

"He means three thousand," whispered Katherine. Crash looked at her, and nodded his head and gave a small thumbs-up.

"Okay." He brushed her off his shoulder almost regrettably, and began his saunter toward the door. "Well if you fine people excuse me; I've got business to do in one of your mines here. Ta-ta."

"Hold it!" growled a rough voice. Just as Crash's hand was on the knob of the door, he froze.

"What?" he asked irritably, and turned around. His eyebrows arched, and Katherine gasped. An old, bearded man who appeared to be in his early fifties pointed a gun directly at Crash.

"Ain't nobody gonna be leavin', lest you want yer brains blown out!" he snarled. Katherine, on instinct, ran up behind the nearest man she knew; unfortunately this male was Crash. Now she was clinging onto him yet again. Wonderful.

"Now is that any way to say goodbye?" Crash asked dryly. The old man grit his teeth and cocked the pistol with a _clink. _

"I ain't takin' no back-talk from a little ruffn' such as yerself. Now, I want some money!"

"A-a-alright," Mr. Ferguson stammered, "I'll g-give you the money. Just don't shoot anyone."

The bearded man looked at him, and then Crash again. The latter was quietly forming a plan, and the man spoke. "I dun know… This purtty young girl looks a-like she could make'n excellent hostage er somethin'."

"Ah," Crash said. "Her? C'mon, you got better taste than that, old timer." Katherine gasped, and stared at him in pure shock.

"Excuse me?"

"Shh," he urged. The older man shifted his eyes to Mr. Ferguson, who was already making out a check. "Hey Ferguson, how much money exactly are you giving this kind man?"

Appalled, the banker stared at Crash. "Four hundred dollars."

"How much does the bank have?"

"Wh-why, at least ten thousand dollars, but—"

The old man narrowed his gaze at Mr. Ferguson, who was fumbling in his check book. Katherine yanked Crash to where he could look at her face-to-face. "What in tarnation do you think you're doing?" she whispered angrily.

"Why, I'm stalling of course," Crash sneered. "Why I finish my brilliant plan."

"Alright Ferguson, I want ten thousan' dollars, or you can say goodbye to your precious daughter," the old man growled. Katherine gave Crash a fearful stare, and bit her lip.

"Now, now," Crash said, and began to imitate the Western drawl quite well. "I'm afraid you just can't do that, 'cause in this town there's a few rules we gotta follow." Currently all of the people, which consisted of these four and a cloaked man in black, were gazing at him in confusion. However, Crash continued. "That means no guns."

"No guns, my behind!" snapped the man, and he fired at Crash. Crash ducked just before his head was blow off, and while in the process sweep-kicked the old chap the ground. The gun flew out of his hands, and slid across the floor. In a hurry, Crash darted for it, and picked it up. Just then, he realized it was just a little too drafty in there. He felt around the top of his head, and hat was missing. Uh-oh.

With a small sigh, Crash sauntered over back to where he was standing, and picked up his white hat. It had a small bullet hole through it, and he casually set it atop his head, concealing his bandicoot ears. "Now, how about one of you call the sheriff or whatever and I'll just leave?"

"Hold up, there, Crash," sneered and Australian voice from the other side of the room. Said bandicoot hadn't bothered to acknowledge the cloaked man.

"What, I suppose you want an autograph?" Crash smiled. The man clad in black shrugged.

"No, no. What I really want is that little stone you're after." He took off his dark cowboy hat, and Crash could've groaned. Oh, how horrible fate was, as Nega Bandicoot stood with a crooked grin on his face and a tommy gun in both hands.

"Stone? What, you mean that disc? I don't have it," Crash said with feigned innocence. Katherine gasped, seeing the animalistic face of Nega, and how fierce it was.

"What in God's name…?" she asked fretfully, and inched herself back to the wall. Nega grinned.

"Plus, I see you have a new friend. Perhaps… A new girlfriend? If so, I'll take Kate off your hands. She's real pretty, you know."

Crash narrowed his gaze hatefully. "She's just one of her ancestors."

"You know, I'm beginning to think that Doll Face and I could really begin something together, you know? She's got the looks, the personality, and if she wasn't always trying to get away from me things would probably work out swell."

Crash grit his teeth and began his walk to the door. "I don't have time for this."

"Oh, but I do," Nega smirked. He aimed his tommy gun at Mr. Ferguson, and fired. The older gentleman gave a shocked shout, and felt to the ground. Katherine gasped.

"Daddy!" she cried out. Crash looked at Ferguson, who was clutching a bleeding shoulder. He grabbed the girl by her wrist and dragged her outside.

"It's a flesh wound; he'll live. But right now, we have to go."

Tears were streaming down her eyes as Crash hauled her to his white horse. He mounted the steed, and Katherine sobbed. "What about…?"

"He'll be fine. Trust me, I think he'll be able to walk to the doctor's and get that fixed up," Crash assured. Nega stood at the doorway of the bank, and cackled.

"You can run, but you can't hide! I've got all the time in the world pretty boy!"

Crash helped Katherine up onto the horse, and he looked at Nega. The crimson-furred bandicoot had a golden glow emitting from his right hand, while in his left the tommy gun was gripped firmly.

"Yeah! And have fun destroying yourself!" Nega shouted right before Crash snapped the reins of the horse.

Katherine held onto Crash, still sniveling even as they galloped down the dirt path. "Who—or what was that?"

Crash sighed heavily. "That there, girlie, is one mean guy. Trust me, I know him better than anyone here."

It was quiet for a while after that, and he realized he had no idea where he was going. Hm… "Hey uh, Katherine?"

"Yes?" she asked monotonously.

"You wouldn't happen to know the way to the mine, now would ya?"

"Well of course! I've been there plenty of times!"

"Great, so could you show me where I should start heading?"

"Just keep going straight, and we'll get there." Silence once again prevailed, making Crash all the more uncomfortable. "Oh, I hope my daddy will be all right."

"Ah, he's got a few good years left in 'im. I can guarantee he'll be just fine with a few stitches."

"Really?"

Crash turned his head around and smiled behind the bandana. "Really."

* * *

><p>Quietly, she snuck into the room, and quietly closed the door. This was the only time she could snoop around her brother's girlfriend's stuff, so Coco decided to find out if Kate had anything to hide. Crunch had wanted to discover the same thing, so he was busy scouring Crash's room for anything suspicious.<p>

Coco breathed in deep, and stood in front of the dresser. "Alright, first thing's first." She opened the first drawer, and wasn't surprised to see sets of folded shirts filling its space. Narrowing her eyes, Coco felt along the cracks and crevices of the clothing, and her fingers caught something. Two somethings, both made of glass. She pulled the objects out, and smiled.

It was a small bottle of amaretto, and container of scotch.

"Hm. Never knew Kate was a bit of an alcoholic."

Placing the small bottles back into the drawer, she closed it and opened the second one. Now, this was interesting. All that was in this drawer were objects, and Coco grinned fiendishly. "Oh-ho, Kate, Kate, Kate." She dug through the objects, and pulled out each one with interest. "Let's see… Pocket knife? Weird. Oh and here's a camera… Pencils, sketchpads, pills, makeup, mirror, necklace, another necklace, more pills, horror novels, sunglasses, another novel, and—oh, what's this?"

Coco brought out a black pistol, a 44 magnum. She stared at it in almost pure shock. Since when had Kate acquired a gun? And, what did she plan to do with it? Before assuming things, Coco checked to see if it was loaded. Yep, it was fully loaded.

"What the… Why would Kate need a pistol?"

Perhaps, it was just for emergencies. Kate wasn't violent, only when she was possessed by Cyboria that one time. Besides, that witch was destroyed. So, maybe this gun was just in case something really bad happened? Should Coco tell Crunch about it?

"Coco?" asked a voice from behind. The bandicoot girl yelped in astonishment, and placed the firearm back into the drawer and slammed it shut.

"Aku! Uh, I though you were out meditating or whatever."

"I came to see what you and Crunch were doing," the witchdoctor mask stated plainly, and then he looked at Coco skeptically. "I'm sure Kate would not appreciate you rummaging through her belongings."

"Oh, she won't care," Coco sighed. "Besides, Crunch convinced me into doing this."

"Ah, so Crunch is the apprehender…"

Coco rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine. I'm the one who told him to search Crash's room. I'll stop, alright?"

"Alright," Aku-Aku smiled warmly. "This will remain our little secret."

Coco nodded. "Yeah… Secret."

"Hey, Coco, you'll never guess what I found in Crash's room," Crunch said suddenly upon stopping at the entrance of Kate's room. In his metal hand hung a bra, and Coco's eyes widened.

"Is that…?"

"It's not yours," Crunch sneered. "Now put it back." He tossed the undergarment to Coco, and she caught it clumsily, quickly putting it into Kate's dresser. She glared at Crunch.

"I knew my brother was hiding something."

"So did you find anything interesting in Kate's drawers?" he asked.

"Nah. Just some pencils and sketchpads," Coco quickly lied. Crunch's smirk dimmed, and then turned into a nasty scowl.

"Man, she's never any fun. What's the point of having her around if she's not got anything to hide?" he grumbled, and began walking away. Coco sighed.

"Well, I did find some amaretto and scotch."

Crunch stopped, and grinned. "Ah, so we have a little drunkard living with us, huh?"

"No, she's not a drunkard. She probably just uses it when she's in a mood."

"Yeah, sure, and I bet she gave Crash some too."

"What?"

"Let's just say that I found your brother and Kate both passed out in his room one night, and when he got up, he was puking his guts out."

"Eww, gross!"

"Yeah. Gotta say, that redhead can convince him to do anything. When he tried talking to me afterwards, his speech was so slurred I just shoved him back in his room before you woke up that night."

"Wow…" Coco shook her head in disbelief. "Guess we better watch him closer, huh?"

"Nah, he's a big boy. He can handle himself. I say if he wants to get drunk, then let him show us how much of a drunken bastard he can be. Kate won't hate him for it, that's for sure."

Coco smiled. "Yeah."

Crash could handle himself. And so could Kate… After all, they've managed alone before. But, they could still handle themselves, right?

* * *

><p><em>Alright duckies, sorry for taking longer on updates. I'm getting pretty busy with school and stuff lately. Thank you, and please continue reading.<em>


	8. Finishing Touches

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Taking the guidance from a local was rather helpful when it came to exploring, as Crash Bandicoot had come to know. Since this particular woman who was leading him through the mine looked a great deal like his lover had when she was human, Crash wasn't sure how great of a time he was having. Perhaps, it wasn't great at all.<p>

Katherine Ferguson stopped at the mouth of what seemed to be the entrance of a cave, only this had carts and tracks piloting inside. A large sign that read "CLOSED DUE TO ACCIDENTS" sat protruding out from the ground like a toothpick, and the young lady sighed.

"It's a shame." She picked up a lantern from the earth, and handed it over to Crash. "Alright, mister. This is where you want to go in to find whatever it is you're after."

Crash furrowed his brow, and took the lamp. "So uh, what happened here?"

Katherine fixed the seams of her bright pink dress. "Well, the silver mine here has been closed only recently. See, a few days ago, miners started disappearing, and the few that came out told of a curse, and some strange creature. Honestly, I believe the whole of it as hogwash."

"Suit yourself. Curse or no curse, I've got a job to do. I suppose I'll just go in there and get that disc myself." With that, Crash fixed his cowboy hat, and left her standing there next to the white horse. At this, Katherine's body seemed to tense up, and just when Crash got to the entrance…

"Wait!"

Wonderful. More waiting.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't have all day," Crash sighed. He had only twenty-four hours to get the Temporal Disc of Earth and get home. Katherine stared at him sheepishly.

"Oh, but… You're going in there alone?"

"What choice do I have?"

Her eyes widened. "Well, you see, I… the curse and all…"

"I thought you said you didn't believe in the curse," Crash stated plainly.

"I don't… It just that, that man back there…"

"There's no need to worry about him," Crash assured. "He just wants to cause trouble; otherwise he would've taken the shot when he had the chance."

Katherine was at loss of words, trying to contemplate of a reason for him to stay. Crash knew this, and honestly he wouldn't really mind having her around for a little while longer. But, if anything happened to her, not only would he be unable to forgive himself, but also Kate's existence would be threatened as well.

"Are you saying you'd like to come with me?" he asked.

"Oh, well, I don't know about that…"

Yet, Crash realized now that she had said several of the miners had gone missing. The odds were that they were probably all dead, and Crash wasn't too fond in coming across any corpses. He'd had his fair share of seeing dead bodies with "King Tut" in Ancient Egypt. That horrible stench of death still made him cringe.

"I suppose you can go," Crash shrugged, brushing the thoughts aside, "as long as you stay close with me, girlie."

She seemed almost ecstatic, yet somewhat terrified at the same time. Sure, the alleged curse was rather daunting, but it didn't get Crash down. He'd already been through more than a few places that seemed to be haunted, and this was just something else to insert to his list of places he wouldn't like to return to. Katherine offered him a match, which she had conveniently stored within her purse.

"Thanks," Crash mumbled, at lit the small lantern. "So, you ready?"

"I suppose so," Katherine said. The bandicoot grinned, not seen to her.

"Then let's get this show on the road!" As he boldly began his trot into the cavern, the young lass seemed puzzled at his way of speech. Truly, it was unlike anyone's she'd ever heard before. Katherine followed directly behind, often glancing around for any hazards. The whole place gave her the willies.

It was in the Ferguson blood. Katherine was easily frightened, and to come across a brave soul that would willingly stare danger in the face and laugh; she felt so much more assured. Obviously, as she stayed longer with this strange man who wouldn't remove his facial coverings, she came to see that he was rather reckless. Reckless! He could get them both killed in here!

Yet, she felt that she was safe… Like, he knew exactly what he was doing. It was almost as if, as strange as it may sound, a feeling of _déjà vu_ was occurring to her. Perhaps he felt the same way.

And oh, how he did.

Crash slowly walked in the barely-lit darkness of the mine, and he could see spots of silver lining the walls. Clearly, the place still could be of some use, so something had to drive the miners out. But, what was it exactly?

The sound of crumbling walls was enough to make his blood run cold. Katherine gasped, and they both looked up at the ceiling. The beams were starting to bend, and dust began to shower down on them. "We gotta move," he urged quickly, and he grabbed her wrist and pulled her further into the cavern. She gave a shout of surprise, and obediently followed him down the seemingly endless corridor.

When they reached a place when the walls were sturdy, Crash turned and saw the light square exit being crumbled up into a pile of rocks, and they were surrounded by only the luminosity of the lantern. Katherine just began to register what had happened, and began to hyperventilate. "No… Oh, God! We're—we're trapped!"

Crash rolled his eyes. Kate had such a cowardly ancestor. "Look, Red, we'll be fine. We just need to—"

She turned to him with a look of ferocity that could've made him jump out of his skin. "How on Earth can you say we'll be fine? This is _your _fault! If it weren't for you we wouldn't be _in _this situation!"

"Hey!" Crash snapped, shocked by his own hostile retaliation. "You wanted to come! I'm just trying to find some stupid treasure because I want to get my Kate back! I never asked to meet you! I only kept you around because if I hadn't, I'd lose her!"

Even though she barely understood what he was saying, she stared at him in fright. Suddenly, tears began to well up in her eyes, and her lip cowered. Crash's tightened face instantly lessened, his agitation replaced with remorse. Katherine turned away from him, and began to sob into her hands. He let out a sigh.

"Katherine… Oh man, Katherine, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean it."

She sniffed, and wiped her eyes. "No, you're right. It's just that… I'm scared."

He didn't know what to do, but when the urge was just too tempting, and he embraced her. "Listen, we'll be fine. You just gotta trust my instincts, alright? I know what I'm doing; at least I hope I do." He pulled her away, and stared her directly in the face. "So you think we'll be able to cooperate?"

Katherine's reddened eyes stared into his. They were so calm… So…beautiful. This man was unlike any other she had met. It was like… She'd known him her whole life. She felt her hand draw up to his face, and she tugged lightly at the red bandana that masked his face. "Why don't you…take this off?"

Crash broke from the stare instantaneously. "Uh, because I've got a bad cough," he lied. He'd come too close. "I think we should get moving, what do ya say?"

Katherine seemed dejected. "Alright."

* * *

><p>It only took one word to describe Kate Clark's present mood.<p>

Boredom.

By now, it was nightfall in Greece, and N. Tropy hadn't sent the usual portal that would take her to that freezing cold room. She was busy walking about the brick streets of the ancient city. Of course, right now she was a white glowing bandicoot that had first of all won a battle against a huge Tasmanian tiger, and then claiming that she was a goddess so people wouldn't be terrified because she was a bandicoot. People who saw her would always greet her with a Latin "Minerva," or simply bow in her presence.

It was starting agitate her.

Of course, Kate realized that with this disc that she held, she had a compelling amount of power at hand. Quite literally. She sat on a boulder, and sighed. She stared at the disc, and spoke to it telepathically. _"Hey, how come I can't go home yet?"_

"_I cannot answer that question," _it replied. _"I am dreadfully sorry. It appears that you only have a few hours left until you will be able to return to your time." _

"_But why? I found you, and now I should be able to go back! I don't get it!"_

"_Ah… But it is not you. Perhaps your lover is being delayed. If you and Crash miraculously finished your missions at the same time, then you would not have needed to wait then. Now, however…"_

"_Yeah, yeah; I get it. Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place."_

"_Exactly." _

Kate was unsure of what was worse: the fact that she was talking to an object or the fact that it was talking back. Well, this is another thing to put into the book of "Things to Make Me Go Insane." She wondered what was possibly holding Crash up. Hopefully nothing too serious…

Besides, what was it Cortex so needed these discs for? All they have are little powers that don't do a lot. It didn't make sense.

But, then again, what did make sense anymore? She was a human, living a perfectly normal life, until that fateful day came. Before she knew it, robots were trying to get her to a mad scientist, and then it turned out that "Jack" was an evolved bandicoot named Crash. Oh-ho, **then** she had to become a Cyborg, nearly kill him, and snap out of it, soon after becoming a bandicoot herself.

All of it: very strange and very stressful.

Then, a small breeze blew by, and Kate's ear suddenly stung. She remembered the lioness that had taken a bite out of her right ear. She touched it gingerly, and was mortified as she felt a piece of it had been torn off. There was dried crusty blood lining the small indent, and she sighed. "Oh, drat. Hope I don't get rabies."

* * *

><p>Crash felt rather joyful when he happened upon a large cavern that was lighted naturally. For one reason, he was glad it was a change of scenery. The inside was covered with rocky jagged walls and a very smooth floor. In the middle of the circular space stood a stalagmite pointing up to a small, ever-turning disc of a pale brown. It put off a bright glow, which was what illuminated the entire place.<p>

"You see that?" Crash smiled. "That's what I'm looking for."

Katherine observed it from behind, and she blinked in wonder. "What is it?"

What a kid. "It's called a Temporal Disc, you see," he explained, and casually began to walk toward it. "This thing is what I gotta use to get home. Supposedly, it has some sort of special power associated with it, but hey, I don't see much special with this one other than it looks like it needs a ride." Crash placed a hand on it, and the glow faded away. All that lit the cavern now was the small lantern.

The walls began to rumble. "Uh-oh," he mumbled. He looked back at the disc. It felt so cool and ridged in his grasp; like a rock. Katherine started to get anxious.

"Now you look what you did! Thanks to you and that darned thing, we're gonna get buried alive!"

Crash rolled his eyes. "C'mon, now. I think you should learn to trust me just a little bit more."

"I've only known you for several hours!"

"Yet it was in that amount of time that you'll find me the most charming guy you'll ever meet." Crash giggled when he heard Katherine stuttering flustered protests. Just as they were about to exit the cavern, something moved. Something big.

They stood still, and listened for it to move again. "What was that?" Katherine whispered.

"Beats m—EEEEE!" he shrieked as he was pulled out of the sight. The lantern fell, and luckily Katherine caught it before it shattered. She bit her lip, and looked around.

"Crash? Crash?"

Suddenly, the room grew much brighter, due to the Temporal Disc becoming active again. Yet, the young redhead gasped as she saw a massive furry creature holding Crash by a leg with its tail. Crash got a better look at what abruptly attacked him, and he too gasped. It was a massive mole creature, with small white eyes, a bald tail, and grey fur. The thing was drooling, and was sniffing the air. It screeched as it held Crash right in front of its face.

He winced, and slammed his hands on his ears. Obviously, he noticed, his hat fell off, but that didn't matter. "Oyi! Must you scream at me?" he shouted back at the mole. It made a strange squeak, and its tail loosened its grip on him. Crash began to plummet to the ground below, and he realized with a blink that he was going to be one helluva mess to clean up.

The ground shook for a moment, and a tall ramp shot up at Crash. He was clearly surprised, and he hit the top of the ramp and to tumble back to level ground. He lay sprawled across the flat floor, and sighed as he added more to his list of bruises. And the Temporal Discs managed to save his carcass yet again. Katherine, still holding the lantern, gazed at him in pure shock. He was pretty unsettled himself, but he didn't have the time to dawdle.

The beast cocked its head around, trying to sniff out its next meal. It shrieked again, deafening both of them. Then, its ugly head turned to them. Crash gulped. "Run," he quickly instructed Katherine. They both dashed madly out of the cavern, and back into the mine. They ran as fast as they could, which was quite considerable with Crash. However, he had to drag Katherine along with him because she was rather slow in her frilly pink dress and shoes.

Crash came to realize that this creature used sonar to "see." How joyful.

The sound of digging followed close behind. If they looked back, they could see the mole making quick pursuit. "We're never gonna lose 'im at this pace." Quite honestly, he didn't feel like getting eaten. Something always wanted to either devour him, or plainly just kill him. Were there any enemies that just wanted to sit down and discuss things like gentlemen?

The sight of a crevice in the mine wall immediately caught Crash's eye. "There we go!"

"What?" Katherine asked, but then she stumbled, and gave a pained cry. Crash whipped around, and saw that she was having a very hard time walking, let alone running. Without giving it a second thought, he scooped her up and they shot right inside of the crevice—right as the giant mole barreled past them and farther down the mine. Crash peered outside of the gap, and watched as it tore through the rock wall that had been created at the entrance.

Nega Bandicoot slowly approached the mine on his valiant black steed. He saw that the opening was obscured with large boulders, so that meant there was no entry. He sighed. Nega saw a white horse pleasantly grazing on shrubs of dry grass. Yep; pretty boy was definitely here.

"Alright," he chuckled, "let's see if I can get these rocks to come tumblin' down." The horse obediently trotted to the blockade, but then gave a loud neigh of terror, and backed up. "What's the deal?" Nega snapped. Suddenly, the ground began to shake. His frustrated expression blanked, and he stared at the shaking wall.

An instant later, a large creature exploded out of the mine with a loud screech. Nega paled, yet his horse bucked and he was sent toppling to the dry earth. With a curse, Nega stood and watched in awe as the creature began to have fits and spasms. Apparently, this was the guardian he'd heard was protecting the disc, and it didn't seem to like lights. The horse quickly galloped away, as did the white horse. Its head turned to Nega, and it began to squeak. His mouth fell ajar.

"Oh… shi—"He didn't have the time to finish his profanity, as the mole threw its tail and wrapped it around him. "OYI!" he shouted in fright. The mole then dug back into the mine, believing that it had who had taken the disc. Too bad it was blind.

Crash and Katherine quickly walked out of the now larger mine, and the latter had to be carried. Crash gently placed her on the ground. "You alright?"

She winced, and bit back as she pulled up her dress so that she may inspect her wounded ankle. There was a large cut that was bleeding rather badly, but the injury in itself wasn't that large. Although, Crash figured from experience, it still probably hurt. If it wasn't bandaged soon, it might become infected.

Yet, they were at lack of a first aid kit. Curse the 17th century's primitive medical care. Crash sighed, and searched himself for a piece of cloth that he could use to bandage it, but he found none.

_Wait, should I take off the bandana?_

_What, and reveal your bandicoot snout? What if she screams?_

_So what if she screams? The odds are I'm gonna be disappearing soon now that I got the Temporal Disc, so what does it matter?_

_Will she be as cool-headed as Kate was?_

_I don't know! She's a lot more timid than Kate, but she's also younger—_

Crash wanted to slap himself. The first sign of insanity: talking to yourself. The second: conversations. Third: arguing with yourself about someone else. Check, check, check. He sighed, and started to unknot the bandana from behind his head. Katherine softly gasped, and forgot about the pain in her ankle for a moment.

"You… you're like that man back at my father's bank!"

Crash offered a small smile, and stooped down by her ankle with the Temporal Disc sitting atop his knee. He tied the red bandana around her ankle, her cringing in the process. "Well, what can I say? So, do what you wanna do, and we'll be on our way."

Katherine was stupefied by his words momentarily, yet what Crash found bizarre was that her eyes were full of wonder. "…What…are you, exactly?"

"Well, let's just put it this way. I'm half-human, half-bandicoot."

"Wow… You're like, some sorta alien!" Then, she bit her lip. "Oh, wait… I'm sorry if I offended you…"

Crash merely laughed. She was handling this well. Maybe it was just in the blood that they could handle out-of-this-world happenings. Whatever it was, it sure was nice not having someone panic and run away with one look at your face. Crash was grateful for that. "Nah, you're fine."

Suddenly, Crash found himself being enveloped by the familiar blue dust, and he stared at Katherine in remorse. She gasped. "What's happening?"

"I gotta leave," he sighed.

"Are you dying?"

"No, it's just that… Please, don't tell anyone about me. Convince your father that he was seeing things at the bank," Crash pleaded. Katherine smiled warmly.

"Of course!"

"And, I'll tell Kate you said hello."

"…who?"

But he could say no more. The world swirled around and around, and he felt his stomach lurch. He tightened his grip on the Temporal Disc, and embraced himself for the chilly room that waited for him.


	9. Beyond History

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Dingodile sighed, and looked straight at Nina Cortex. Behind her was a still weeping Tiny Tiger, and the sapphire Relic placed back on its pedestal. "Care to tell me how the bloody hell this happened?" he growled. Nina only rolled her eyes.<p>

"The stupid redhead put on an act that obviously Tiny was duped by. Besides, I didn't want to stay around to be the one to get pulverized."

"Whatever," the hybrid replied gruffly. Just then, the room was illuminated in a flash of yellow, and they had to shield their eyes to avert being momentarily blinded. When the brightness died down, they saw Nega Bandicoot staggering to a stand. Inevitably, he failed to do so, and he collapsed. Tiny had by now stopped crying and gazed blankly at the fallen bandicoot.

"What happened to you?" Nina asked. Nega didn't reply, but only gave a strangled groan. The girl rolled her eyes, and directed her next statement to Tiny. "Help him out."

"Tiny will help," replied the tiger, and grabbed Nega by the collar of his trench coat. As Tiny held him up, they saw numerous amounts of scratches and bruises on his nimble body. Nega stared up at them wearily.

"It's called pain, mate…"

"What happened?" Dingodile asked.

"Well," Nega sighed, and motioned for Tiny to set him down. The latter complied, and he stumbled before standing in a hunched position. "There was this huge mole…thing… It suddenly attacked me, and dragged me inside of the mine. Afterwards, it tried to eat me."

"Interesting…" Nina said with a sort of glimmer in her eyes. "It may still exist today, if it were immortal like the Temporal Discs."

"I doubt that," Dingodile muttered dryly. "Each Temporal Disc only subsists in a certain time period. If, by chance, we were able to locate them today, that would be nice. Unfortunately, Cortex could only pinpoint the areas of where they were most noted. For instance, in the Wild West, miners knew about the Disc. In the Medieval times, it was guarded, like in the Egyptian time period. In Rome, people considered it a gift from their gods."

Nega, subsequently, grew bored of his blathering, and took to admiring his claws. Nina glanced over, and rolled her eyes. "Moron."

"What?" he asked defensively.

"You weren't paying attention, that's what."

"Well it's not really my fault that Dingo has a tendency to ramble on about nonsense!"

"Hey!" Dingodile snapped, his very sharp teeth showing. "I'm just explaining, you mongrel! It's not like you're the one who takes the time to oversee the missions!"

Nega immediately backed down, and nodded. He wasn't in the mood to get into a fight, seeing as how he was already injured from the scrape with the mole, and that Dingodile had the strength of a crocodile and the taste of a dingo. Dingoes, as you may know, have an appetite for bandicoot.

"So," Nina said, furrowing her brow, "What about the next two discs? How was my uncle able to get their coordinates?"

"What do you mean?" Dingodile asked.

"Well, considering the next one is set really far back, and the other one is in the future. How was my uncle able to record things in prehistory and things that haven't even happened yet?"

The room got quiet for a moment, confusion etched onto Dingodile's face. "I don't know…" he admitted. Nega simply growled, and stretched his limbs.

"Well face it. We're not getting anywhere caring about it, and I'd rather decide to stop caring so we can get something done."

"Never thought I'd say this, but your little 'moron' is right," Dingodile sighed, crossing his arms. "I'm gonna go get my flamethrower, so you two don't do anything too dangerous." With that, he left the room, leaving Nega, Nina, and—regrettably—Tiny in the room alone. The teenager sighed, and crossed her arms, giving Nega a stare.

He stared back awkwardly. "What?"

"Nothing. Except for the fact that you're injured and you can't make another trip."

Nega's eyes widened and he began to sputter troubled gabble. Finally, he made coherent words. "Well! I am in perfect shape! I can handle myself, thank you very much! I'm in perfect health!"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're stupid and you don't know when to quit, you persistent fool."

Nega grit his teeth and balled his fists. He supposed that he could just kill her and dispose of the body carefully… but the odds are, Cortex would find out and… That would be the end of him. Well, Cortex didn't show too much interest in his niece. Maybe he wouldn't notice right away. Maybe when the summer's over, things won't change a bit when she goes back to her private school.

Although, that didn't mean that he didn't have time to argue with the buck-toothed girl. They yammered on for what seemed to them hours, when finally Dingodile came back with his flamethrower. He saw the two in dispute, and sighed in disgust. He really was the adult here, wasn't he?

"Nega, you're arguing with a kid. You're twenty-three years old. Get a grip," Dingodile snarled threateningly. The bandicoot muttered a curse, and quieted. "Now, let's decide who goes where."

* * *

><p>Kate tumbled through the whirligig, and lay sprawled on the floor rather comically. She sighed, seeing the familiar mist that formed with her breath. "This is certainly going leave a bruise or two during this fiasco, isn't it?" She then got into a sitting position, and stood up. Oddly enough, there were puddles of water on the ground, and she stood over one, seeing her reflection.<p>

"Man, I look terrible," she said in disgust, combing her fingers through her matted red hair. "I need a shower too." But then, she saw her ear. There were dried splotches of blood around the area of where skin was ripped off. She bit her lip, and noticed the shredded look to it. "Oh my…"

"Mrs. Bandicoot," a voice sighed. Kate forgot about her permanent scar and whipped around. She saw Nefarious Tropy standing in front of her, his strange fork-like staff glowing with energy. "I require the item of ultimatum."

"Ultimatum?" Kate smirked. Suddenly, the disk formed within her grasp, and she handed the object to Tropy. Her lips tightened. "Don't think I don't know your plan."

Suddenly, her head began to ache terribly. Her brain seemed to scream with agony. Kate fell to her knees to cope with the blinding pain, gripping onto her hair. Now, it was Tropy who smirked. "I do think that. After all… you're memory _is_ being erased."

"What… is this…?" Kate gasped. It felt as if her entire skull would split right down the middle. She began to forget things very quickly, not remembering anything that happened since she'd come in possession of the second disc.

"Don't worry, my dear. You still know your mission, and you still know what will happen if you do not complete it. I will give you only twelve more hours to find the third and final disc. The Disc or Life awaits you now."

Kate, through throbbing and blurry vision, saw her surroundings start to swirl into blue dust and glittery light, yet her face still cringed with pain.

"Wha… What's happening…?"

The bandicootess stood to her wobbly feet, gazing at the vortex she was in. She was no longer cold, yet she wasn't warm either. It felt… empty.

The ground rushed up to meet her much too quickly. She tumbled across a new foundation, one that she didn't take it too fondly. It was hard and rocky, and some stuck to her skin. Wincing, Kate rubbed her forehead. The pain was waning and was more tolerating, yet that wasn't her main concern.

Where was she?

Better yet, when?

She took a moment to take in her new surroundings. The sky was a horrible red color, and dark clouds scattered everywhere. She sat in the midst of a large city, or what once was a city. Kate found that she'd fell on asphalt, a tarnished and broken road. Buildings were either crumbled or totally destroyed, their external structure wholly or partially intact. Glass was scattered everywhere, and sickly looking rats scuttled about the place in search for food.

Kate swallowed. What was this place? Was this the aftermath of an earthquake? How come there weren't any people? Unless…everybody was dead.

A shiver danced up her spine as she began walking. Kate felt frightened being in such a gloomy place. The empty feeling returned to her in the pit of her stomach. A rat ran across her foot, and she gave a surprised shout, kicking the vermin away.

As Kate slowly made her way down this road, she saw a large billboard, and gasped. "Wumpa City?" she breathed. It was indeed the city; she could tell because she recognized some of the signs that she'd seen while shopping in the city for groceries. There were many bars that were obviously abandoned, but their dim lights still shone for the strangest of reasons.

Wait, if this is Wumpa City, why was it like this? Last time Kate checked, it was perfectly fine. Now, it was in ruins. Crash never informed her of the city's collapse, so it never was like this in the past. That meant…

Kate realized that she was just near her home. She had to be sure that this was truly what she thought.

* * *

><p>Crash sighed, and stared at N. Tropy. "So, I take it you want this?" he said, holding up the Temporal Disc of Earth. Tropy narrowed his gaze coldly.<p>

"I demand that you hand over the item, Crash Bandicoot."

"Or what?" inquired the orange Anthrian, folding his arms diligently. "You'll send me into some God-forsaken wormhole?"

"Believe me, that sounds like an excellent idea; but you are important to the mission. Hand it over, or else Ms. Clark will suffer the consequences."

"Really?" Crash knew that what he was doing was dangerous, but he was desperate to strike a nerve. "Then let me see her for myself."

Tropy froze, but then he snarled. He pointed his staff at Crash, and a beam of light shot out from it, shocking him. The latter gave a yell of anguish, and the disc fell from his grasp. It levitated to N. Tropy, and he opened the door in his chest, locking it inside. Crash furrowed his brow and scowled.

"Someone's a little rude."

The scientist was in no mood to be tormented. "You will find your third and final disc, the Temporal Disc of Desire. Twelve hours."

Crash's mouth fell open. "Twelve? That's it?"

N. Tropy made no more that a simple smirk as a reply. Crash was surrounded in blue mist and dust, and he was no longer in the dark room he was always in. It was rather odd, time travel. It took about an entire minute before you strangely arrived in another time period. He found himself rolling through vegetation, and regrettably a muddy surface. He crawled out of the bush.

"Oyi," he groaned. "I'm getting too old for this crap."

He saw that huge trees towered high, and bushes grew to the size of houses. The air was thick, but was surprisingly fresh. First thing he thought it was were the forests of his home, N. Sanity. Yet, as he got a closer look, this certainly wasn't his island paradise. The plants weren't quite the same, and the trees… They looked like they needed a trim.

Crash realized that he was still in his cowboy disguise, and he quickly began to take off the vest and flannel shirt. Tossing them onto the ground, he inhaled contently. One day, he swore he would just ditch the pants and run around in his birthday suit. That would surely startle the crew.

Crash began to trek through the mighty jungle, whistling a nonchalant tune. He suddenly wondered how they were treating Kate. Were they feeding her? A growl ran through his stomach. If he was hungry, she was bound to be too. The marsupial stopped upon seeing a large tree, bearing one fruit.

"Now that's what I call luck," Crash said. "I'm famished." Staring the large tree up and down, he pondered on how he was going to get the fruit without putting little to no effort into the task. It was at a considerable height, and he was relatively short, besting at least six inches over five feet. He liked the fact that he was taller that Kate, otherwise he would feel strangely discouraged. Although, Coco was starting to catch up on both of them, and that fact alone could make his heart stop.

He caught site of a rock sitting near the oddly shaped trunk, and he picked it up. If he threw it well enough, he could break the small branch and the fruit would tumble to the ground. On the other hand, if he missed, it would probably ricochet and hit him in the face. "Ah, well. I'm reckless," Crash muttered, tossing the stone in his hands a few times before chucking it at the branch. It snapped immediately, and the fruit fell from the tree.

Crash caught it. "Alright!" he beamed. He was about to take a bite of the succulent looking fruit, when something began tugging on his jeans. He furrowed his brow, and looked behind him. He gasped.

It was a little dinosaur the size of a chicken, chirping up at him.


	10. Shocking Discoveries

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Crash blinked away his amazement. Was this what he thought it was? As the tiny lizard cocked its head and stared up at him curiously, it wavered on its own two feet and began to chew on the fabric of his jeans. "Quit biting my pants!" Crash said, shooing the creature with his foot. It made a startled shriek, and backed away. His brow creased and he took a longer, more observant look at his surroundings. Pelican-like lizards flew through the sky, and he gasped upon seeing giant dinosaurs with incredibly long necks grazing in a field of trees and grass.<p>

"Well would you look at that?" he breathed, scratching the back of his ear. Suddenly his jeans pulled down lower, showing a small proportion of his underwear. He gave a small yip of embarrassment, shook off his unmanly outburst, and whipped around to glare at the small dinosaur. "Would you just run off and get squashed, mate?"

It snorted, but then screeched. The reptile darted away in fright. Crash smiled proudly, taking a large bite out of the fruit. "Yeah, you better run!" His lips puckered at the taste, and he winced. "Yikes, that's a little too sour for my liking. It'd be like taking a bite out of Crunch." He snickered at his own joke. "I gotta start writing these down." He tossed it behind him and began to trek forward, to where the larger dinosaurs were about.

There was a low growl that came from behind him, and the bandicoot stopped in his tracks. While you were taking a stroll in prehistory, trying to figure out how to find a treasure that could be anywhere, growling wasn't a good sign. Crash slowly turned, only to come face-to-face with a muzzle of scales and sharp teeth. A massive velociraptor that stood a good foot taller than him was staring him down ominously, its crest spiked with anger. His fruit was smashed right on top of its head.

Crash swallowed hard. More velociraptors came from behind, and began approaching closer. He began to back up instinctively. "H-hey, no hard feelings, right?" Yet, the alpha raptor, the one Crash had accidentally assaulted, shook it's head violently to fling off the fruit. It cawed in rage. "I'll take that as a no," he replied, and darted off into the forest.

Crash was considerably fast running on his own two legs. He was sure because he—through a silly competition—discovered that he was faster than anyone on the island, including Kate. Yet, however, he forgot that these creatures were once Mother Nature's athletes; thus they were very fast as well. "Hell," Crash said between breaths, "just look at their bloody name!"

Suddenly he felt something sharp drag down his back. He cringed and willed himself to push forward. These things were way too fast. He sped right, straight into a heap of bushes. They didn't see him turn so suddenly, and that gave him an advantage. He blew a breath of relief, but then heard an angered call come from the raptors. He knew he didn't have any time to lose, and was off running in an instant.

By now his lungs were growing tired from all this exercise, exercise that he wasn't really fond of. Crash was panting and saw the velociraptors starting to pursue him once again. "Oh, come on!" he grumbled. "Find something else to chase!" They obviously didn't understand, or if they did they didn't care. Two of them lined up beside him and the bandicoot saw the alpha of the raptors standing where he would be blocked.

Just as he thought he was a goner, he noticed a patch of mud so conveniently spread beneath its long legs. Crash performed a baseball slide underneath the shocked reptile, and used the momentum to continue sprinting. The raptors were about to resume their hunt, but stopped. He twisted his head around and grinned savagely. "What? Not good enough to kill anymore, you little reptilian basta—"

His statement was cut with a sharp yell as the bandicoot found himself falling fast. He hadn't seen the cliff, the one where the velociraptors had chosen to stop chasing him. And now, Crash hit a soft, gooey substance that was warm. He groaned and struggled to get into a sitting position. However, something was making that a hard task.

"What in the name of N. Sanity…?" he said, pulling his arms up. They were covered in a black muck that was like glue. As he began to sink, he gasped as the realization dawned on him on what the material was. "Oh, crud," he groaned as he tried to free himself from the tar. He couldn't spin to safety; the paste had too firm a grip to allow such a thing. It began to creep up to his knees.

_This will be one heck of a mess to clean out of my fur,_ was his initial thought on the matter. Yet, as he grunted and pulled against the restraints that dragged him deeper into the earth, he knew that this could be yet another horrible way to bite the dust. This wasn't going to be easy. He couldn't spin his way out of this one like he had at the river; it was too thick. Pretty soon the warm tar coated his waist. He gave a hopeless whimper. Maybe they'll find his body in a museum exhibit some day millions of years from now.

Suddenly, he saw a small leafy tree held out to him, and he grasped onto it before he could even think where it came from. He was yanked upward with a great force that he almost flew out of the tree. Then, he was placed onto the ground gently, and he looked at all of the tar that smothered his body. "Guess who needs a shower?" the bandicoot sighed bitterly. He looked up to thank whoever had saved him, but regretted it as soon as he did.

A gigantic green T-Rex loomed over him, its blue eyes shining in the sunlight. He was breathless, and his mouth ajar with terror. Still gazing up at it, he collapsed onto his knees, tired of running anymore. "Just… make it quick… step on me first."

He closed his eyes and prepared for the absolute worst. Instead, it didn't come so quickly, so he glanced up at the beast again. It head simply cocked to the side, and it began to sniff Crash. Its breath felt like gusts of air to him, but then it ran its tongue up his body, covering him in slobber. The bandicoot didn't know what to do or think, other than not to move too quickly. The T-Rex began to lick him over and over again, until he finally realized that all the remaining tar had come off.

What? He was still in one piece?

The Tyrannosaurus simply blinked and situated itself, causing a momentary quake. "I don't understand…" Crash said slowly. Didn't it want to eat him? Suddenly, he remembered the little T-Rex that he'd watched hatch as they became friends and escaped a raging triceratops. It couldn't possibly be, could it? If it was, then how is it possible that it remembered Crash? The scent? After all, he was the first thing it saw. But…?

_No more 'buts', just be glad the guy saved your rump._

A grin spread across his face as he stood up and stared up at the massive creature. "Baby T! Crikey, you're not so 'baby', anymore are you? Gee wiz, bud! You were tall when you were just a little twerp! Now look at you!" It seemed to be lightened by his new attitude, and its tail swayed back and forth. Crash found himself laughing even though he was quite nervous. He just hoped that he wouldn't turn and decided to make an easy snack out of him.

"So, big guy… how about a ride, for old time's sake?"

* * *

><p>Kate grunted as she pulled the motorboat up to the shore, and sighed as her feet sloshed through the water. It seemed that it was around noon judging on the position of the sun in the red hellish sky. She gasped as soon as she saw the island. The trees were all dead or simply looked like something out of a swamp or a horror movie. She swallowed hard, and was breathless. Where was her home? Where were Crash, Crunch, and Coco? What had become of them?<p>

She ran forward, and suspected all that she could. Kate could find her home nowhere, as of her family. This was the future, right? What had happened? Suddenly, she did eventually find her small hut-like house, and couldn't bear the sight of it. The roof had mostly collapsed, and the walls were cracked with age. She wandered inside, and looked all around. There were roaches crawling and scuttling about to avoid being crushed be her feet. "Hello?" she called.

Kate found a small feeling of fear welling up in the pit of her stomach. "Is anybody here?" Her room was trashed, as was Crash's and Coco's. As soon as she came to Crunch's doorway, she met the barrel of a large gun.

"Get out," a gruff voice demanded, and she saw it was Crunch. But, was it? He was mostly made of machine parts, and his face was aged and most of it was lined with grey. Kate blinked in amazement.

"C-Crunch?"

"I said get out before I blow off your head," he snarled, his eyes dangerous. Yet as he finally looked at her, he saw that she looked like… "Kate?" She nodded. But he shook his head. "No, you're just another android, aren't you?"

"No, Crunch, it is me, Kate," she persuaded. "Please, believe me," she said, taking his arm into her hands. He was started by the gesture, and his lip cowered.

"Your touch… it's warm…" he muttered quietly. His gaze shifted to her eyes. "You are…"

"Yes," she nodded. "What happened to you?"

He swallowed, and backed up. He sat on his bed with a solemn expression. She didn't know quite what to do, but noticed that there were thick wires attached to his back. "Kate… it's been twenty-five years… since we lost you."

"What're those wires hooked up to you?" she asked quietly.

"I have to stay hooked up to them at all times to keep my hear beating," he explained briefly. She sat next to him, and he chuckled automatically. "You haven't aged a bit."

"Where is everybody?" she asked. Although, she nearly regretted asking, as his eyes dulled in grief.

"Kate… Kate, everyone's gone. Coco is forced to work for Nina, Aku-Aku was destroyed, and Crash…" he paused, looking at her sorrowfully. "He's dead."

She had a sudden intake of breath, not wanting to believe so. "Dead?"

Crunch nodded. "Kate, you never came back. The Temporal Discs were used against him before they destroyed themselves. Coco and I tried to save him, but we were too late. We tried to find you, but then they got Coco, and nearly killed me. Aku saved me and was able to heal my wounds just enough so I could construct this machine. Aku was stripped of his life by his evil brother, and Cortex then wiped out most of the life on the islands. Then, he found a way to enslave the entire world. But now, he's too old and Nina Cortex took his place."

Kate couldn't believe her ears. "But… I…"

"Where have you been all this time?" Crunch said, trying his best to hold back any tears that might threaten to fall. The redhead looked down in shame.

"I came from the past."

Crunch nodded. "That would explain." But then, at once, his ears perked up and his eyes lit. "Then you can change this future."

"I can?"

"Yes, you can. Are you here on a mission?"

"Yeah," she said, remembering, "I have to get the last Temporal Disc, Life."

"Life…" he replied slowly. He stared at her hard. "Clark, you must get it. You have to keep all this from ever happening."

"But, how do I do that?" she asked. "I don't have the slightest idea where it's at and I'm at loss of most of this."

Crunch sighed. "You have to try. Please."

She let a few moments to pass, and she agreed. "Alright."

She embraced him, and they bade their farewells. With a new motive, she knew at last what Cortex had planned out for her and Crash in the present. She took the motorboat, and sped toward the gigantic castle that lined the Australian coast. Kate was mapping out her plan; since they needed her to complete her task in the present to actually rid of her, they'd hand it right over. Then in her time period, she would just adapt Crash's theory:

Fly by the seat of her pants.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I apologize for the delay. I've had an awful lot of things to do quite lately, but I plan to make room to finish this. Thanks for the reviews so far, they keep me going!


	11. Life, or Desire?

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>Stealth. One word, yet it meant so much right now. Although, to a certain redhead creeping through the halls of a large castle, it came easily. It was twice the size of the one in the Renaissance times, but it was also very ghastly and resembled one of the castles she would've seen in a cartoon. The architect was very creative. Kate swallowed back her nervousness as she spied two more feminine drone bots march past her. They were a lot smaller than the bulky ones that Cortex had built, but were much deadlier. They weren't much bigger than Coco, and they carted guns around. The most distinctive part of them was the bright pink lower-case "n" on their foreheads.<p>

Obviously, Kate knew who was in charge.

The bandicootess crept through the hall and into a dark corridor, where she'd heard voices. The purple-ish walls faded into a dull gray, and she saw a door was cracked open and light was leaking out and beaming a light onto the floor and wall. Kate silently inched herself against the wall, and peered inside the lab room. She saw what appeared to be an aging Cyborg with grey-orange hair and a rocket protruding from his skull. He took off his bifocal, and turned with a smile to something she couldn't see.

"I've made yet another discovery, my robotess," he said, picking up what seemed to be a heart with a pair of tongs. A mechanical voice answered.

"Yes, N. Gin?"

Kate paused. She knew that voice. She looked closer into the room, and she had to stifle a gasp, so she put a hand over her mouth. Standing across from N. Gin was unbelievably Cyboria. Wasn't she destroyed? N. Gin opened up the heart with a scalpel, and pointed inside. "The cause of death in the lab assistant was cancer. That disease was terminated years ago."

Cyboria blankly examined closer. "Affirmed. The human has expired due to heart cancer."

N. Gin sighed, and took Cyboria by the hands. "It's something you will never do, my robotess. Perhaps if you were a Cyborg like me, then you might age. But, I wouldn't have you any other way. An enhanced fembot unit may truly be what you are, but you're more to me than that."

Kate stared at the scene with a look of disgust. This wasn't Cyboria—it was a robot built to look like her, which was rather creepy. She hadn't known that N. Gin had taken a liking to the wicked witch.

"Bandicoot, take this organ to the Anatomical Research Division," N. Gin commanded. Kate heard the shuffling of feet and saw a middle-aged blonde Anthrian take the slab and nod.

"Yes sir."

Kate nearly fainted from disbelief. That was Coco! What was she doing here? She recalled that Crunch said that she worked for Nina now, and she grinded her teeth in anger. She burst forward into the room, rage stenciled onto her face. "Hey!" she growled. Instantly, Coco dropped the heart from the shock and Cyboria's eyes turned red in attack mode.

"Specimen: bandicoot/human. Permission to execute?"

N. Gin was startled, but growled. "Yes, she's a rebellious slave." Kate smirked and didn't take her eyes off of Cyboria. Too bad it wasn't the real thing; she would've loved to avenge herself for what that cold-hearted computer had done. She'd just have to stick with this boring copy instead. The robot burst forward, metal hand outstretched. It didn't seem to be programmed for battle, which was excellent. Kate had picked up a few fighting moves from Cyboria herself, and threw an uppercut into its jaw.

The machine staggered backward, a few sparks flying from the head. "System error. Target is capable of offense."

"Damn right, I can fight!" Kate grinned. She caught a glimpse of Coco's eyes widening in astonishment at the cocky comment. They battled, clawing at each other and missing mostly. Suddenly, Kate's nails bore across the face of the fembot unit. Large amounts of it peeled off and hung limply on the face. It now looked like a demonic metal skull glaring red beady eyes into hers. She gagged, "Gross."

Its head began to spasm, more sparks hissing through the air. "Command not recognized."

"The hell?" Kate muttered, backing away. She found herself up against the wall. "Man, you're nothing like Cyboria."

"I am Cyboria," it responded automatically. She rolled her eyes.

"I was the _real_ Cyboria."

"You are a bandicoot."

"You forgot the slash-human part, you hunk of junk."

Sparks began to erupt from it more rapidly. Kate smiled, thinking that computers weren't able to comprehend "impossible" events. "Bandicoot… You are a bandicoot, but my DNA Scanner says you're half human…"

"Lemme guess," Kate chuckled, "'Does not compute?'"

"I am Cyboria—you are Bandicoot—You—I—Not the same specimen—ERROR, ERROR, ERROR."

Kate shielded herself as the robot fizzed and hissed and jerked about wildly. N. Gin was horrified. Then, it stopped, giving her one final gaze, before toppling over in a smoking heap. Kate giggled and fixed her shirt. "How do you kill two Cyborias in one lifetime? You build another!" She scowled at the small man who was now trembling. "Now, go get your preppy leader. I've come to collect that disc and I ain't going back without it."

He nodded, and quickly scuttled away, cursing to himself about having to repair the fembot yet again. Coco Bandicoot stared at Kate like she'd seen a ghost. Perhaps she had. "K-Kate? Is it really…you?"

She offered a sad smile. "Yeah, Coco."

Immediately, Coco dashed over and hugged her tightly. Kate was shocked at how much older she'd become; she must've been nearly forty now. The blonde sobbed. "Where have you been?"

"I'm… I'm from the past, Coco," Kate explained. The latter pulled away to get a good look at her face, and she gasped.

"You're so young… You look just like you did… like you did when you and Crash left us that day…"

"That's because that day… I had to time travel."

Coco blinked, and pulled off her glasses. "Kate, do you have any idea how long it's been since you disappeared and Crash was…"

"…Yeah. I met Crunch earlier, and he explained that."

"Crunch? He's still alive?"

"Well, somewhat. He's hooked up to a machine that keeps his heart beating. He's in the old house."

Coco closed her tired blue eyes in remembrance. "That little hut held so many memories."

Kate nodded with a sigh, and gazed at her softly. "Coco, I can save this future from happening. I just need that Temporal Disc."

"The disc?" she gasped. "That's in Mast—I mean, Nina's private chambers. No one is allowed in there."

"Yeah, but they need me."

"Indeed we do," sneered another woman's voice. Kate turned to see a rather built blue female with black spiky hair, and the unmistakable "n" imprinted to her forehead, glowing with diamond. "You see, Kate Clark, I need you to go back in time and give my ol' Uncle Neo that relic, bless the poor man's soul."

Kate creased her brow. "Is he dead?"

"He has been for twenty-five years, darling!" Nina laughed. "I'm going to let you see that event for yourself whenever you return. You were whisked away in a time warp, never to be seen again. Unfortunately for that mutt Crash and my uncle, the Temporal Discs lost control and took their lives."

Kate gasped. "You mean…"

Nina sighed. "Come with me. Fembots, take Ms. Bandicoot to her chamber." The robots nodded and took Coco by the arms. She cast Kate a mournful glance, and she was gone. Kate followed the older Nina, and felt incredibly short compared to how tall the young teen had grown.

"I know, you're thinking 'From Brat to Bitch', right?" Nina chortled. Kate was stunned. "Don't worry; over the years I had a few devices planted into my brain where I can read the thoughts of others. It keeps my slaves from rebelling too often."

The bandicootess found herself in a bright room full of extravagant furniture and décor. "Wow…" she muttered. Then, she saw a podium with a bright oval light perched right on top. "Wait, is that…?"

"It is," Nina replied. "And you're not getting it." Kate blinked and looked at Nina strangely. Then, the villainess quickly brought out a gun and pointed it at her. "I knew you would come this day. I've prepared for this moment in every possible way, and finally; it's happened."

"What? What are you talking about?" Kate asked.

"If you return, this future will be taken away. However, if I kill you then it shall all end. I will remain the ruler of this planet," Nina explained. She cocked her pistol and smirked. "This is where you end, Kate Clark. Forever may you rest with your pitiful lover." Kate swiftly dashed out of the way of fire and ran towards the disc, panting. Nina uttered a curse and reloaded.

The bandicootess reached the podium after stumbling up the steps, and it was within just a finger's length. But then, she heard a fire, and felt a sting. Everything stopped, and she stared down to her chest, where she saw a growing spot of blood forming at her abdomen. Her legs trembled. Kate fell to her knees, and she felt dizzy. Now, it was burning with agony, and she desperately grabbed the Disc of Life.

Nina gasped. "NO!" She ran up to the fatally injured Kate and tried to snatch the object away. "You do not deserve life! You deserve utter hell!" However, she was unsuccessful in retrieving the disc, and Kate's wound began to heal. She blinked away the dazed state, and decked her opponent in the face. She backed up, and stared Nina in the eye, which was now bruising.

"I'm sorry," Kate replied, out of breath, "but hell isn't exactly pleasant. I think I'll stick with the quiet days you guys always ruin." Then, she began to fade into blue light. Nina ran up, trying to tackle her to the ground, but it was too late. Kate snickered. "See you 25 years ago, you spoiled brat."

* * *

><p>He was on top of the world. No one could tell him what to do now that he had a cold-blooded killer as his new ride. Crash, who was roosted on the shoulders of his old reptilian friend, which he had then named 'Baby T.' It was full adult now and had actually let Crash parade around on its back like an amusement park ride. "You know what," said the bandicoot, "I think you need a new name. How about Rex? No, no; that's unoriginal. Hm, what about Gigantor? I'm pretty sure you're the biggest guy around these parts."<p>

The Tyrannosaurus's head flipped momentarily, nearly bucking Crash off and onto the ground. "Alright then, I'll think of something else." He sighed and turned onto his back. This was by far probably the easiest adventure yet. He actually thought of taking the big fella home, but the odds were Tropy wouldn't cart this dinosaur millions of years across time.

Crash curled his fist in irritation. He suddenly recalled his purpose here. "Alright, Scaly; we need a place to go. No, that name won't work either." The T-Rex showed no signs in understanding him, so Crash just sighed and lay on his back.

They trekked into a large forest, and the T-Rex, which Crash had finally decided just to call Rex, because it was more difficult than he thought just coming up with a new name. "Now, if I were a Temporal Disc… Where would I be hiding? Any suggestions, Rex?" he asked. Obviously, there wasn't a reply from the beast. "I thought so."

The bandicoot narrowed his eyes at the volcano that was off in the distance. Things always seemed to be complicated when it came to situations such as these, and he'd bet his hide that the darn thing was in there. Crash patted Rex's large jaw, and pointed off to the large crater. "Alright, that way."

He waited for Rex to turn, but it didn't happen. He creased his brow, and jabbed his finger into its hard cheek. "Oyi, did you hear me? Volcano. March. Towards." The giant reptile still did nothing but continue down the same way. Crash scowled. "What's wrong with you?" Suddenly, it produced a low, throaty rumble. Crash instantly became nervous. "Uh, I didn't mean it like that—"

Instantly, a loud roar in the distance cut him off. Trees crackled. Rex's growl grew louder, and he took a stance. Crash knew this wasn't good at all, so he simply made himself smaller. Then, he heard what sounded like an explosion. Trees toppled to the ground before them, and Crash gaped at the massive creature that stepped in front of them. It was a Scaliosaurus, a colossal dinosaur with a sail-like spine, and a long, thin snout…

…and it looked mad.

Rex bellowed at the strength of a thousand trumpets. Crash winced and shielded his ears as he lost his balance of sitting, and he tipped over the side of his ride and fell the ground with a soft thud. He moaned, and glanced up at them. The Scaliosaurus looked down at him hungrily, and suddenly began to tramp toward him. However, Rex burst forward, jaws open for attack. Crash had to quickly move or otherwise be squashed.

He looked back at the volcano, and to where the onslaught had taken place. He winced at the sight of blood, and then Rex went down. "No…" Crash breathed. The T-Rex gave a sad glance at him, and the Scaliosaurus ripped out the jugular vein of its enemy. It appeared to sneer at Crash, who became all the more enraged. Though, if Rex couldn't have handled this guy, Crash was sure that he would be just a blip on the radar. He darted off to the crater as fast his legs could carry him.

Sure, it had been just a T-Rex, but the guy took the bullet for him. It was pretty depressing. But, there were more important matters at hand; if Crash didn't return with that disc, Kate would go too, and the dinosaur's efforts would have been in vain. Soon, Crash could feel the heat to the volcano, and stopped at the entrance. "Boy," he said, his throat becoming raspy from thirst, "this place feels like a Dutch oven."

He saw a crack in the earth leading up to it, and realized that it was a natural entrance to the inside of the pit. He swallowed. "Well, here goes nothing." Sucking in his waist to make it into the crevice, his eyeballs instantly reacted to the horrid fumes by watering. He coughed, and looked around. The pit glowed with fire, and he saw an unmistakable green light from the center.

However, he'd have to climb down to get to it.

"I could _really_ use some sun block right now," he sighed. Crash crept his way along the edge of the crater. One missed foot and it could lead to a pretty bad consequence. It made his skin crawl with disdain as little crumbs of rock slid down to the lava twenty feet below. Why was he always the one to go on these crazy adventures? Why can't he ever get someone to fill in to save the world for him?

Abruptly, a part of the ledge gave way and he found himself sliding downward. He gave a stunned cry and made himself slow down. He whimpered as he finally stopped, just a few inches away from the bubbling magma. "Sweet baby Jesus," he said shakily, "I freaking **HATE** volcanoes!" He carefully positioned himself, and saw that the landslide had actually helped him to become closer to the Temporal Disc.

Crash calculated his route to the relic, seeing a convenient stretch of rock leading straight to the weird yet natural stalagmite holding the precious disc. It wasn't going to be that fun jumping like an idiot from platform to platform, but what else was he supposed to do? Crash exhaled, stepping forward to the first one. "Man, if this were a video game it would be a _lot_ easier."

And so, he leapt swiftly from rock to rock, amazingly keeping balance. Crash chuckled, and stood proudly at the foot of the pedestal. "Now that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Then, the volcano began to quake, and the path he had taken began to rise in a strange manner. Then, magma swirled around the rocks and created a cobra-like lava serpent. Its yellow eyes flashed with fire, and it hissed at him. Crash's pupils shrunk. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

It surged forward, and he scrambled away to avoid injury. The Temporal Disc tipped over its resting place. Crash immediately noticed and leapt to catch it. He felt a sudden burn on his back, and saw the snake had spat a type of acid on him. "Damn it," he cursed to push away the raw feeling. "I wish there was some sort of way I could get out of here."

Then, to his amazement, the volcano rumbled again. The serpent stopped, and they both watched as a stone path formed its way to an entrance Crash hadn't noticed until this moment. He looked down to the glowing disc, and smirked. He remembered that this was the Temporal Disc of Desire, which obviously would grant anything he wanted to be true.

He hopped gleefully to the exit, but by an angered growl from behind, the lava cobra was in literal hot pursuit. "You know," Crash said as he bounded stone to stone. "It would be excellent if a giant rock crushed you right about now."

The serpent looked up, and was terrified to see a flaming stone crumble from the top of the volcano, and fall right on top of it. Crash snickered, but his entertainment ceased as a wave of magma rushed forward to meet him. "Well it was nice knowing you! G'day mate!"

The bandicoot sprinted out of the pit, and was more than happy to see the sky once again. He avoided the shower of lava, and rolled along the ground. He gazed up at the cloudy sky. "Whew, that was close."

"_I'd say."_

Crash nearly jumped two feet in the air upon hearing a voice. He looked around, and saw no one. "Who said that?"

"_It was me, you twit. Look down."_

He gazed at the Temporal Disc in astonishment. "You… you talk?"

"_Well duh, you filthy rat. I've been waiting for millions of years to actually get to talk to someone. That redundant serpent in there was actually less intelligent than you are."_

Crash stared at it in disgust. "Now wait a damn minute. I put my ass in danger to get you, and you call me a filthy rat in your ridiculous snobby accent?"

"_Relax, fool. I have news for you. Your little girlfriend? Yes, you know who I'm talking about. You see, Katelyn Annabel Clark isn't in danger. I could've told you that all along."_

"What?"

"_Oh, shut up and listen. I've been around since the minute time started. If it weren't for me and my brothers, you wouldn't have gotten here in the first place. There are six of us, but you're only to collect three. Your woman is collecting my other brothers. I'm learning this from the knowledge of time itself. You were tricked into believing that she was actually being held hostage, as she believe the same thing with you. Now, will you listen to what I have to say?"_

Crash's mouth fell ajar. "You're joking."

"_It wouldn't be the first time Neo Cortex deceived you, idiot. He just wants to use you so that he can travel through time and change history. However, I can help you."_

The bandicoot narrowed his eyes. "Then again, if I just snap you in half my troubles will be over."

"_If you break me, your whole universe will collapse! Time will cease to exist, as will you and your loved ones! Since the beginning, all of you had simple thoughts. You wouldn't have thought about love! I am Desire, what creates the feelings of want! You should be thanking me, as I am what will truly motivate you to save her!_

"_You see, Crash Bandicoot; my creator, the Sun, had formed my brothers to create the world you live in today. However, humans had basic thoughts of survival. Now, I thought that there should be more to the mighty race that you bear similarity to. Emotions should exist. So, I gave you all the power to want and to wish. But, I was outcast by my own, and my brothers had also suffered the same consequence as I; to live on Earth in different time periods for the rest of eternity. And, I was stuck in a time of no humans to remind me of what I had done."_

Crash blinked. This was a lot to absorb. He was unsure of whether to believe the disc, or to just ignore it. But, he did believe that it was telling the truth about Kate, so he couldn't make a reason not to trust it. "Alright, so…"

"_We have an ancient proverb: '__With the use of fire, man got desire; turned down a great knowledge, and destroyed the earth. In the end, it was his friend, that teleported him to life again.' You see? It labels my 'mistake.' But, this is all the information you need to know from me. If only you'd met my brother Knowledge, he could tell you 'everything.'"_

"Everything?" Crash muttered. But, he was swallowed up in the blue dust that had teleported him through time.


	12. The Final Countdown

**A Crash in Time**

* * *

><p>"<em>You idiotic baboon."<em>

"Good-for-nothing stone."

"_Incompetent rat."_

"Useless piece of sh-"

"_Don't you even say it,"_ the Temporal Disc of Desire spat. Crash crossed his arms and glared at the relic with distaste.

"Well at least I have a face."

"_And isn't it ugly?"_

Crash bared his teeth dangerously. "Oyi, I don't have to deal with you, ya know." He seated himself onto a crate in the dark room that he was held in continuously. "I'm just waiting for Tropy to show up and take you away."

"_Dream on, you dirty marsupial."_

Crash grinned. "I wish you couldn't talk."

Suddenly, the room became quiet, and the bandicoot sighed in relief. _"Just joking,"_ the disc jeered.

"Well, who wouldn't want you to stop yapping with that ridiculous snooty voice?"

"_Your accent isn't exactly godly either."_

"I've got a girl that absolutely adores it, so you can kiss my ass."

"_Don't you raise that tone with me, bandicoot! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be here."_

"What, you want to take it all back?" Crash chuckled. "Gees, you're nothing but a rude object that talks. If you think I'm going to give up arguing with you, then you've got another thing coming."

The Temporal Disc muttered some incompetent words of frustration, and then sighed. "As stubborn as you are, I surprised your woman even bothered deciding to live with you."

Crash grimaced. "You know, I wish I wouldn't have to deal with you." Then, the doors to the room began to unfasten. His ears perked up, and then, the door opened. There stood Doctor Nefarious Tropy, holding Kate in his grasp.

"Alright Bandicoot; the disk."

Crash quickly tossed the Temporal Disc Frisbee style and it lost velocity and hovered beside the doctor with a similar transparent disk. Tropy jerked Kate into the freezing room, Crash catching her. Before he could properly reunite with her, he cast a glance at Tropy. "A little birdie told me about your plans."

"Yes, yes, I know the two speaking discs are troublesome. Nevertheless, you two will learn the consequences of meddling."

Then, he shut the door.

* * *

><p>Nega Bandicoot brushed off his trench coat. He held a familiar shotgun in his hand as he stared at Neo Cortex with a smirk. "Alright Doc, when do we leave?"<p>

Cortex laced his fingers together and he crossed his legs in a large chair. His niece, Nina, carried a case full of syringes containing cyanide to kill her target at birth with. Cortex exhaled and narrowed his eyes. "As soon as the machine is ready, you may depart. Remember, all you have to do is take them out, and…" he grinned. "Watch the magic happen."

Dingodile furrowed his brow. "Never thought I'd hear a man of science say that. Whatever." They were about to leave to the chamber, when Cortex motioned Nega to the side.

The crimson bandicoot folded his arms. "What?"

"Before completing your mission, I would like you take out the Crash and Kate of our time so they won't screw up everything I worked for."

Nega shrugged. "I expect a little something nicer added to my room when I return." He turned on his heel and headed in the opposite direction of his coworkers. He was rather excited. He could take out both of them now, and get to kill Crash's younger self. This was going to quite a show. He could finally show pretty boy how terrible he'd made his life since that day—

He growled. He hated thinking of the past and it triggering some sort of emotion. Emotions suck.

He found himself in front of the door of where the two turtledoves were. He grinned, and cracked his knuckles. Using the entrance was so old; maybe he should mix it up a little. Nega grappled his gun tightly and saw a vent. Now things were going to be interesting. He was fortunate for a rather low ceiling. He jumped up and grabbed the edges of the hole, and hauled himself up there.

"I still got it," he chuckled, slightly out of breath albeit continuing on with his complicated method of entrance. He crawled through the vent leading into their room, and peered through the hole. He smiled, and decided to wait for proper timing.

"You had to go through the same thing I did?" Crash asked. Kate nodded with a shrug. Then, his eyes shifted to her right ear. "What the—what happened?"

"Well, to put it simple, I hate cats," she said, trying to lighten the moment. "We should probably find a way out of here."

Nega grinned, and chose this as a key to react. He kicked the vent down, and burst through the hole he'd created. "Oh, I hate to barge in on you two but it just seemed so opportune. Did somebody call for a rescue?" He aimed his gun at them, and cocked it. "Well it's not coming." He fired the gun, but Kate had flung them both to the ground. He grumbled a curse and realized he'd forgotten to reload before coming in here.

Oh great.

Something hard swept under his feet and before he knew it he was laying on his back, dazed. Kate snagged his shotgun, and stared him in the eye. Nega's heart fluttered. "Wow Doll Face. You… you look different."

"I'm a bandicoot now, bastard," she growled. She stuck him with the butt of the gun, which left him in a state of anguish. She ditched the gun in a corner, and looked up at the hole Nega had entered. "Let's go."

Crash was about to make a sharp remark about climbing and how it clashed with how utterly lazy he was, but decided against it knowing that their time was short if they didn't boot it. He locked his fingers together, and Kate stepped on his intertwined hands and leapt up into the shaft. Crash looked at his now dirty palms and frowned. "Ew, where have you been?"

Kate's head popped out, her expression annoyed. "Would you believe me if I said the future?"

"Only if you'd believe I rode a T-Rex," Crash countered with a smile. Kate rolled her eyes, and held out her hands. Crash was about to accept them, then something pulled him away and thrust him against the wall. It was Nega, his usual pearly canines shining with ferocity. Kate gasped, and began to try to clamber down to help him. "No," he coughed through the arm against his throat, "go on, girlie. I'll catch up with you."

"Not if you're dead," Nega snarled with malice. Kate was on the verge of loosing it, but she came to the decision to stop whatever it was Cortex and his allies were planning. She crawled through the vent as if there was no tomorrow.

But if she didn't hurry, there might not be.

* * *

><p>"The time has come," Doctor Neo Cortex proclaimed. He stood next to a green machine with a large glass tube that could fit up to three people in it. Beside him was a wheel with six colorful discs that were all glowing with intensity. His minions stood in front of him, faces all transfixed upon the relics. "Today, Crash Bandicoot will cease to exist."<p>

He turned to the Temporal Discs with a greedy smile that could've turned Satan himself jealous. "Tropy, activate the Discs." The time master nodded, and placed himself in front of the artifacts. There were only two holes, shaped like squares, which were to be filled. He lifted his staff up to it, and placed the prongs of it into the gaps, which fit perfectly. With a swift twist, the rod put the machine generator into motion. The glass chamber began to glow with light, and the computers were animated.

Cortex was pleased. "Excellent work." He paced over to a computer, and began typing commands immediately. "Alright," the doctor began. He turned to where his underlings had been standing. His jaw dropped. There stood Kate Clark, eyes full of mischief and rage as a thick bar was in her hand, the crew unconscious behind her.

"Hello again, Cortex," she said. She stepped closer. Cortex grimaced, and balled his fists.

"How did you get in here?" he demanded. Kate simply shrugged and offered a grin.

"I took the door, brainiac. Your Nega fellow is getting his ass beat by my boy right now. Until then, how about we get to know each other a little better?" She patted the other end of the bar on the palm of her free hand thoughtfully. "You know… I used to enjoy being a human being. But then of course, you just had to have Cyboria, didn't you?"

Cortex was apprehensive at what this petty girl wanted to do, but he wasn't short of minions yet. "Tropy! Assist me!"

"I can't," said the man. He continued to rotate his staff. "I must carry on with the task at hand, or the machine will malfunction and become inoperable for the rest of eternity!"

Kate smiled. "Oh? You've ran out of friends? What a shame."

Cortex wasn't giving up. Not to this woman. He narrowed his gaze. "You think you can match up to your lover? You think you'll ever be as 'great' as Crash Bandicoot?" He smirked. His statement had deterred her. "I could easily rid of you with a flip of my hand."

Kate mustered a ferocious glare. "I'll take that challenge! No Clark is killed without a fight."

"Oh, then you wouldn't mind if I killed your brother too, if he fought back?"

She gasped, and her face turned deadly. "Leave him out of this."

All of a sudden, they heard a loud commotion out in the hallway. Then, Crash entered the chamber and hid against the wall, eyes wide with terror. Kate's attention was diverted to him. "Crash?" He was covered in various small cuts and bruises. Then, Nega burst through the door, also in the same wounded state. His head snapped to his adversary.

"Pretty boy! We're not done yet!"

Then, a bar flew throughout the air, and struck him square on the forehead. His face blanked, and he collapsed. Crash turned to Kate with a foolish face. "Boy, I never thought I'd appreciate your dart-throwing skills."

"Well, hometown champ three years running," Kate said proudly. They joined up again, and saw that Cortex was at the door to the portal. He held in his hand a futuristic pistol, and wore a fiendish sneer.

"So long, bandicoots." With that, he began to make his way into gateway through time. The two Anthrians gasped, and rushed toward N. Tropy at full throttle. They both tackled the man to the ground at the same time. The machine began to fizz and spark.

Just as Cortex stepped into the chamber, the portal vanished, leaving an empty glass tube. He was devastated. "What? No, no this can't be! NO!"

Tropy was exhausted from the extensive work he'd been doing, and he blacked out in fatigue. Crash and Kate stood, both with relieved faces. They embraced.

"We did it," Kate said. Crash nodded, stroking her hair.

"We sure did, didn't we?"

"No, you haven't!" snapped a voice. They whipped around, and Cortex was contorted his face in wrath. In his hand was the Disc of Desire. He chuckled faintly. "I may not be able to kill you back in time while you were mutated, but I can do it now. Desire, I wish that Crash Bandicoot was dead."

"_But I can't—"_it said, but the scientist glowered at it.

"NOW!"

"… _As you wish, Doctor."_

Kate quickly looked at Crash, and gasped. His hand was clutched over his chest, eyes blanking. He fell to his knees. Kate took his shoulders, and felt panicked. "Crash, baby, look at me. Please!"

He did, offering a weak glance. "Kate, destroy those Discs." She began to weep, and his eyes grew soft. "Trust me." He gave a small smile and a wink, before totally falling limp. She gaped, trying to understand it all. She and turned to Cortex with fire in her eyes.

"You... You bastard!" she shouted. Cortex couldn't prepare himself as she ran up to him and punched him with unreal force that sent him flying. The Temporal Disc of Desire soared out of his hands, which Crash ceased his act of death and caught it. Cortex was baffled.

"You're dead!"

"Well," said the orange bandicoot, "if you hadn't cut off my friend here, you might've learned that he cannot grant wishes like death or life. You see that transparent disc over there; Life? It can do that, but…" He chuckled, as Kate had dislodged the other five relics and held them, "Good luck getting them from her." He glanced down at the green disc in his hand, a silly smirk on his face.

"_I don't know how you do it, you filthy marsupial. But to keep the world safe for years requires talent," _it said.

"I don't suppose you can't take this freak and all his minions off our hands?"

"_Pfft, you wish."_

"In fact," Crash said, eyes drifting toward Cortex and Kate. "I think I do." The doctor gasped, and in a flash of illuminating emerald light he was gone. Kate was astonished.

"So that's it? They're gone?"

"_My brother had whisked them away to another part of the globe, somewhere even more isolated than this," _said the Temporal Disc of Knowledge. Crash got off his feet and walked over to Kate. He shoved his free hand in his pocket and sniggered.

"Well now, more than one of these buggers can speak? Interesting."

"How did you know to play dead?" Kate questioned instantly. Crash shrugged.

Ah, well, y'know. He told me through telepathy or something." He decided to change the subject. "Besides, how're all of you going to get home?"

Then as if on cue, a strange portal opened up above them. The two bandicoots gawked up at it in amazement. It was like a dark purple sky littered with stars, and a mass of light right at the center. The two speaking Discs gasped.

"_It's the Sun!" _said Knowledge.

"_Does this mean he forgives us?"_

"_I think so."_

Crash didn't quite appreciate the fact of being left out of an important conversation. "What's going on?" he asked. Suddenly, he and Kate began floating upward, their faces forming a staggered expression. "Hey!"

"Crash, what's happening?" she asked, the discs drifting from her grasp, him entering. They held each other, trying to cope with the loss of gravity.

"Like I know!"

She was about to scorn him for such a retort, but the Temporal Disc of Knowledge interrupted. _"Bandicoots, we are returning into space with our creator. After seeing the efforts and desire to stop a cruel man from destroying many, he has decided to give us another chance. He has offered transportation back to your home."_

"Oh, well that would be very nice," Crash shouted over the strange whirring sound. How the hell was a big ball of gas able to tell what was happening? Although, he didn't quite care. He was getting a chance to go home. He gave a thumbs-up to demonstrate his strange gratitude.

The Disc of Desire sighed in irritation. _"I bid you adieu. I wish the greatest luck to you and your loved ones."_

They both rolled their eyes at its unenthusiastic tone. "Thanks," they muttered in unison. Then they were sucked up into the portal like a huge vacuum, and they held each other like life was over.

* * *

><p>Their eyes were tightly shut, arms grasped tightly around each other. Kate was the first to slowly open her eyes and to have daylight dawning upon her. She felt the sensation of water coating her waist and down, and a very wet Crash holding her firmly. He then realized the sunshine and the familiar warmth. They both let go to take an appropriate look at their surroundings. They were both soaked, and the thick jungle surrounded them. Crash saw Kate, no longer dressed in the black combat clothing but in her bikini of the same color instead.<p>

"We're home!" he shouted with laughter. They threw each other back into their embrace, amusement erupting through the air and the sound of sloshing water. After a few minutes more of merriment, the two lovers retreated from the familiar water hole while stretching their limbs tiredly.

"I'm bushed," Kate said. Crash nodded.

"How about we go back to the house and take a nap?"

"For once, I agree," the redhead giggled. They began their long walk to the hut, his arm draped over her shoulder and the sun setting gently in the west.


	13. Epilogue

**A Crash in Time: Epilogue**

* * *

><p>"So, you really went to the future?" Crash Bandicoot said with the usual wide and charming smile. He was seated on his old green couch with his feet sprawled out to the other end. Kate Clark was parked on his lap with her legs in the same fashion.<p>

"Yep. It wasn't pretty, actually. It was the result of me disappearing over time."

"What was it like?" he asked.

"Well let's see… Nina Cortex ruled over everyone, Coco served her, Crunch was barely alive, and… you were dead."

"How wonderful," he scoffed. "You know, I traveled to the Old West." At this, Kate gasped.

"Seriously?"

He grinned. "Are you jealous?"

"Hell yes, I am! It's always been a dream of mine to see cowboys! …I got stuck with Romans."

"In a sense, you were there with me," Crash said in consolation.

"Oh, don't be corny and say 'I was there in your heart,'" Kate grumbled. He raised his brow with a shrug.

"No. In fact, I met one of your ancestors. The little lady looked just like you when you were human."

"Really?"

"Yeah. In fact, she saw me as a bandicoot by the time it was over. She had the same reaction as you."

"What?"

"Don't sweat it; the girl handled it fine. Katherine Ferguson is quite a chick, I'll say." Kate nodded, and laid her head against his chest. It was quiet for a moment, until he spoke again. "She had just the cutest face; and those eyes… Oh, those big green eyes…"

Kate growled and punched his chest. He coughed, and patted her head. "Relax, mate. You know you're the one for me. Besides, I couldn't fall in love with a human. They have such fat, flabby faces."

Her mouth fell ajar. "Excuse me?"

"I said I love you," he said with a foolish smirk. Kate rolled her eyes and got up. Crash swallowed. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to cook dinner, you terd. It's not like anyone else likes to do it." Crash decided that there was no arguing with that. He once tried to pull off dinner while Kate had injured her hands one day, and it turned out terrible. But, she thought the efforts were sweet. She paced into the kitchen to find Crunch there. "Oh, hey," she greeted.

He pursed his lips and handed her a spatula. "You have no idea how much I missed you," he said silently. Kate's face turned skeptical.

"Me, or my cooking?"

He blinked, and began to briskly trek out of the kitchen. "Glad to have you back." He called.

Kate grinned, and gazed out the window. The sun was already beginning to set, coloring the sky with all shades of orange and purple. She distantly began to ponder about her past life, and all that she'd left behind. It saddened her deeply to think about her family. She hoped that they weren't that worried about her. She had vanished so suddenly. She could never see them again due to the fact that she was partially animal.

Her eyes drifted downward, and she noticed a strange device sitting on the window sill. _'Is that the same phone-thing Crash had when we met?'_ she wondered. However, her stomach growled and shook her from her thoughts. Time to resume her new life; providing a woman's influence on the Bandicoot family.

* * *

><p>Nega Bandicoot sighed as he folded his spare pair of pants. This was a new building that Cortex had purchased from some funding that Nega hadn't a clue where it came from. It was practically like a castle, which would've been cool to live in.<p>

Unfortunately, he didn't have the chance.

Nina Cortex folded her arms, a sullen expression on her face. "So, where are you going, since you can't stay here?"

"Wumpa City." Nega muttered. "I'm just glad your uncle isn't throwing me back—"He paused, taking a moment to swallow. "—back to the 10th Dimension."

"I think it's kind of harsh that Cortex would just toss you out like this," Dingodile said. He stood at the doorway of the room next to Nina, arms shoved in his trousers. "I mean, let's think about it. We've all failed to kill that mongrel, but why is he especially mad at you?"

Nega stopped. His eyes were dark with dejection. "Because I failed as soon as he made me."

"What?" Nina asked, furrowing her brow in confusion. "My uncle made you? Like Crash?"

Nega only turned his head halfway. "Yes, he did."

Dingodile was baffled. "I thought you were Crash's anti, or evil twin?"

"No," he spat harshly. "Believe it or not, this world really is my home. If I hadn't even tried to save pretty boy's ass I wouldn't have even gone to the damn dimension in the first place!" He walked swiftly down the corridor. He ceased at the entrance, and opened the huge door out of the building. However, he hesitated, and gave a last look to the two he could almost consider friends. "I… I'm sorry."

"Goodbye, Nega," Nina mumbled. Dingodile nodded in agreement. The crimson bandicoot exited, walking leisurely to the docks that awaited him. As he kept to his stride, he kept thinking about the bandicootess he saw back at the station in Antarctica. She was a beautiful thing, something he discovered himself to be thinking about more often. He liked the ones who would fight back, the ones that gave a challenge.

But of course, she hated him, just like everyone else. Nega seated himself into the motorboat, eyes looking to the group of islands far off in the distance. There had to be some way to even get a chance with a girl like that…

* * *

><p>Do I smell a bit of <em>foreshadowing<em> in here? Oh, well, you'll have to wait until my next story to find out what happens! Thank you all for sticking with me this far; this saga is only halfway over and it gets even better! I wish you all the best! Until then, I must process your next very interesting story, introducing a brand new character! :)

-ChicFlick97-


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